Cinder Girl
by The Lorelei
Summary: A retelling of Cinderella. I know what you're thinking: another one? Yup. But mine is different. And ya gotta read it to see why. ^_^
1. The Lovely Prologue

A/N: This tis my retelling of Cinderella. Duh, you know that, you read the summary. -smacks self on forehead- Anyway, I know there's tons of Cinderella retellings out there, but mine is different. Truly, it is. But you gotta read it to find out how. :-P It's rated for some curse words and a tiny rape scene, although I don't go into any details.

It's finished (woow) and undergoing a Massive Rewrite…so, yeah. Reviews are much appreciated, o course, and so're emails. I don't bite, much. And I actually updated the Prologue. Yay. -does a little dance-

The cobblestone street was dark; the sun had set long ago, and the moon was little more than a crescent sliver in the sky, casting little light down upon the citizens of the city below. Not that there were many people out and about on the streets this late at night; those few that walked about were most certainly fools, as they were guaranteed to be the instant target of any number of thieves, rapists, or other dangerous people that wandered the streets of the city at night. Those that were not fools were most likely unfortunate enough to not have a choice; or, even more rarely, they could be dangerous enough themselves that they need not worry about the scum of the street.

The tall, elegant, beautiful woman strolling confidently down the streets of the city must have been one of the three. She was far too well dressed to have no home but the street, and she certainly didn't have the look of a fool. It was almost certain she was the third. Not a single soul dared to touch her in her confident stroll.

The place she walked to so confidently looked no different from any of the other wooden carts liberally decorating both sides of the street. The Summer Faire in the capital of Valava attracted many such merchants; there was nothing about the wagon the woman headed to that suggested it was any different than its many cousins.

Inside the cart, the merchant Takra counted the day's earnings, a frown creasing his round, wrinkled face. The pile of coins was far too small, and without a single glint among the copper to hint of silver or even gold. It was enough for the two of them to survive on for perhaps a week, but if their situation didn't improve soon...

The old man's depression was eased none by the knowledge that he had no other soul to blame but himself. If he hadn't grown so addicted to his card games, if he hadn't gambled all his money away until he was so deeply in debt there was no end in sight...

The knock on the door of the wagon interrupted his thoughts abruptly. Pushing his chair back and rising, he scurried to the door at once; any visitor was a potential customer, no matter how late at night they might come.

The woman outside gave him a cool, humorless smile, one that didn't reach her eyes. "Greetings, merchant," she purred silkily. "I have a business deal to discuss with you. If I may come in?"

In the short time during which she had been talking, he had looked her over and made a hasty assessment, coming up with the conclusion that she was very rich. Clothes such as the ones she wore didn't come cheap, and she looked as though she was used to far better. Diamond earrings caught the light and glittered as though to even further emphasize her wealth, and a ruby pendant hung from her neck. Nodding, he stepped back from the door, allowing her inside his humble abode.

She ducked under the door gingerly, glancing about and barely managing to hide her automatic reaction--one of disgust. The interior of the wagon was even smaller than the exterior led one to believe, and it was quite sparsely furnished; the only furniture in this main room was a spindly three-legged stool and a short table, upon which Takra had been counting his earnings. The woman sank into the stool without even asking, leaving Takra to sit upon the floor with a barely suppressed reaction of annoyance.

"I believe you have a daughter," she said without preamble, glancing towards the back of the wagon, where the ten-year-old girl was sleeping peacefully in her small bed.

"Yes, I do," he said warily. "Why?"

"You see, my daughters and I are in need of a maid," she continued, as if he hadn't spoken. "I am willing to offer a great deal of money for your daughter's services, and I can assure you she will be very well-treated. Naturally, she will be able to visit you at any time she wishes."

"Ma'am, my daughter is only ten years old," he protested. "She has no idea how to work as a maid."

"I am very well aware of that fact, merchant, and I am willing to train her myself. Perhaps this will help change your mind." Producing a blue velvet purse from somewhere, she set it down gracefully upon the table, the coins inside chinking at the soft impact. Despite his misgivings, his eyes followed it hungrily; the purse alone was worth a small fortune. "I trust this will be enough?"

Licking his lips nervously, he stood, crossing to the table and raising the purse. He fumbled with the golden clasp a moment, but managed to get it open, and was reduced for a moment to nothing but standing and gaping.

The purse was filled quite literally to the brim--with gold. It was more money than he had ever seen in his life, even before he had developed a gambling problem.

He closed his mouth and looked back at the woman, not having put the purse back down yet. "She'll be well-treated?"

"Indeed." She watched him with the tiniest of smiles upon her lips, as if she knew he was thinking quite seriously about accepting her offer.

"And I can visit her whenever I want?"

"Most certainly. Far be it from me to separate a child from her father."

He hesitated for a moment, but then glanced back down at the purse again. The sight of the fortune in gold decided him. Looking back up towards the woman, he nodded curtly. "Alright."


	2. An Ordinary Day at Rhianna's

The stain on the floor had been there forever, but Rella scrubbed at it anyway; she was likely to get beaten for not getting it off no matter what she did, and she figured maybe Rhianna would notice that she had tried. Continuing to single-mindedly scrub, out of the corner of her eye she saw the richly dressed herald strolling ceremoniously out of the door, nose stuck in the air.

Rhianna waited for the door to swing shut after him before fussing at her. "Are you done cleaning the floor yet?" she demanded pompously, from above Rella's head. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the question; after all, wasn't the answer obvious?

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the kick aimed at her side just soon enough to roll out of the way. "Answer me when I ask you a question, you impertinent little brat!" the sorceress scowled, aiming another kick at her side, which she didn't quite manage to dodge. Falling flat on the floor, her hand flew to the side and landed atop the handle of the bucket of soapy water. Automatically, she hefted it, throwing it at the sorceress to defend herself.

She had perfect aim. For a moment, Rhianna was so stunned that she simply stood there, black silk and purple velvet dress dripping water and soapsuds on the halfway-cleaned floor. If the situation hadn't been so serious, she would have laughed. As it was, Rhianna recovered from her surprise before Rella could move. Snarling, she yanked her up by her sleeve, cloth tearing as she did so. Grasping her roughly by the shoulders, long nails digging into her flesh, the sorceress shook her so hard she felt as if her bones must have rattled, then smacked her quite soundly across the face. Scowling, she stalked off to change into dryer clothing.

Rella dropped to her knees, hand to her cheek. She had surprised herself as much as the she had surprised Rhianna, that was for sure. Taking a deep breath, she made herself go back to work; after all, it certainly wasn't her first beating and subsequent bruises. Grasping the bucket, she went to refill it.

As she turned on the spigot and cold water began to splash inside the bucket, she couldn't help but wish she could have paid attention to the herald that had come, even though she already knew what he was going to say. Everyone in the town did as well, which she had found out that afternoon when she was sent for groceries.

"Heard about the big ball?" one woman would ask another, and the other would nod excitedly; or, more rarely, the other would ask, "No, what ball?" And then the first woman would tell the other what everyone else already knew: the King of Valava was holding a great ball, to which all eligible maidens in the country were invited. Out of all these eligible maidens, Prince Thadindor, rumored to be the most handsome and desirable man anywhere in the country, would choose his bride.

Shaking her head, she took her bucket and brush, and went back out to the entrance hall to resume scrubbing. Rella might be an eligible maiden, but she was fairly certain she wouldn't go to the ball. The sorceress Rhianna would send her own two hideous daughters, and leave Rella at home. She wasn't entirely sure she objected to that, either. After all, what if the woman the Prince chose as his bride didn't want to marry him? What if the two didn't get along? It didn't seem like a very good way to choose a bride. And besides, what if the Prince was spoiled rotten, as she'd heard a lot of royalty was?

Not that she'd ever had any experience with Princes herself; her father might have been a prosperous merchant, but he never had any royalty among his customers. In fact, they had been in quite dire financial straits the last time she had seen him; so dire that she suspected he might even have sold her to the sorceress. She didn't believe, though, that he knew what he had been selling her into. No matter how much money he might have been offerred, she didn't think he would have sold his only daughter into slavery.

An unearthly caterwauling drifted into the room, the racous noise unstopped by the many walls in between it and Rella. Lianne was attempting to sing a love song, with Anastasia playing harmony on the flute.

_ Attempting is right,_ Rella thought wryly. Even she, who wasn't at all proficient in music, could tell how horrible the two sisters were; all it took was a pair of ears.

Looking around at the floor of the entrance hall, she nodded; it was as clean as it was ever going to get. Picking up her bucket and brush, she strolled down the hallway, innocently reaching out to shut the door to the music room as she walked by. The noise still penetrated into the hallway, but at least it was a little bit easier to ignore.

Bucket and brush placed inside the kitchen closet, she paused on the way out to look herself over in the hallway mirror. As she had expected; a bruise was already forming on her left cheek. With a morbid sigh, she tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear, green eyes staring woefully back at her in the mirror. She wasn't exactly what one could call pretty; her eyes were just a bit too far apart, and her nose a little too straight, and her chin a little too pointed. Her ears were slightly pointed at the top, too--Lianne had told her once that it was a sign of elven blood, but Rella wasn't too sure that she believed in that.

_Not that Lianne is a beauty either._ Lianne's ears were too big, and her hair and eyes were a plain shade of brown that didn't quite suit her pale complexion. Anastasia was even uglier; her nose was at least two times as big as a normal person's, and whenever she went into the sun she always got a tan and freckles, even if she wore a hat. Her also brown eyes didn't look right when they were set among a tan and red hair, and both of the sisters had absolutely enormous feet.

_ Rhianna is the only one in this house that could be called a beauty. _Rhianna had long black hair that lightly skimmed the floor when it was put down all the way, and green eyes set in a classic face, with red lips, pale skin, and a perfect little ski-jump nose; all in all, she was the epitome of classic beauty.

"Rella!" Anastasia's nasal voice interrupted her reverie. With a sigh, she headed to the music room.

Opening the door, she immediately curtsyed to the three within. "Yes, milady?" she asked, not looking up.

"Lianne and I have clothes we need you to wash," Anastasia ordered bossily. "They're up in our rooms. Go get them now."

She curtsied again, eyes on the floor. "Yes, milady." Leaving the room, she closed the door behind her, wincing as they restarted their practice.

She had to stop in the kitchen closet again to get two baskets for carrying clothes, and it took her quite a while to gather up the sisters' hastily discarded clothes from the past few days. As she filled the wooden tub with hot water, using Rhianna's amazingly advanced system of indoor pipes, she heaved a sigh. How long had she been here, servant to Rhianna and daughters? And how long would she be? No one had ever spoken of her going home, ever.

_Not that I ever really had a home, but travelling all over the place with Father was a lot better than being a slave to Rhianna. _She would have asked a long time ago if Rhianna knew where her Father was, but knew she'd probably get beaten for it.

Absently beginning to scrub one of Lianne's dresses, she wondered, not for the first time, about the possibility of running away. She had contemplated it before, but had always decided it wasn't wise. After all, she didn't know what magic the sorceress had, and Rhianna could probably track her down as soon as she left. Who knew what Rhianna would do to her if she tried to run away and failed?

_I doubt Rhianna would kill me, but you never know. And as much as I hate doing all this, I find myself oddly attached to being alive._

No, there was no way she could make it without help.

Without help...

_What about _with _help? No, that's silly. Who would help you, anyway? You're just Rhianna's scullery maid._

_No, no one would help me. At least I've managed to learn to avoid getting beaten most of the time--and at least I have my friends._

Reminded by that thought, she hurriedly finished scrubbing the last of the dresses and hung them up to dry. Looking around carefully, she ran out to the stables, hurrying so no one would see her and assign her another duty. Walking along the row of stalls, she patted the horses on the noses, greeting them by name. Raven, Crow, Nightingale, Hawk--Rhianna named all her horses after birds.

In case anyone saw her and asked what she was doing, she picked up a currycomb, striding into Raven's stall and giving the big black stallion a hug before beginning to groom the horse. "Hello, Raven," she whispered to him. "A herald from the King came here today."

Was he that strange-looking twolegs? Raven wanted to know. She nodded, absently working the currycomb in circles. "He came to tell us about the King's ball."

You never had heralds coming to tell you about balls before.

"That's because this is a special ball, Raven. Every eligible maiden in the kingdom is invited, and the Prince is going to choose his bride from among them."

I see. You'll be going, then?

"No, I doubt it. Rhianna will probably just send Lianne and Anastasia and leave me here." Patting him on the shoulder, she went to the tack room to get a hoof pick.

But you are an eligible maiden, he said as she came back into his stall. He sounded confused, and she chuckled as he obediently lifted a leg for her to clean his hoof. "Do you think Rhianna cares?" she asked him.

Well...no.

Lowering the first leg, she moved to another. "Well, there you go, then," she told him.

Have you ever thought of running away?

Strolling out from the stall, she deposited the hoof pick in its place and picked up a mane and tail comb. "Well, yes," she answered him as she began to pick out snarls in the stallion's mane. "I never actually did anything because I wouldn't make it alone."

Why not?

"Because Rhianna is a sorceress. If I ran away she could probably hunt me down and kill me. Easily."

Oh. Well, who might be able to help you?

"Exactly. Who would help me? I'm just a scullery maid, Raven. I'm nobody. There's nobody in this world that would be willing to help me."

I wouldn't be so sure about that, he started, but was interrupted by Rhianna, calling for her. With a sigh, she patted Raven on the shoulder, setting down her comb and giving him a whispered reassurance that she would come back later if she could before trotting back up the path to the sorceress' castle. "Yes, milady?" she asked humbly as she came near, dropping into a curtsy that wobbled slightly.

"What were you doing out in the stables?" the sorceress snapped.

"Grooming the horses, milady," she replied, keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Were you _asked_ to groom the horses?" Rhianna replied acidly.

"Well, no, milady. But I knew it needed to be done, so I thought I could do it before I got asked--"

"I have told you before, you shan't do things without being asked," the sorceress said sharply. "Now, go. We're expecting a visitor tomorrow, and he'll probably end up staying the night. Go get one of the guest rooms ready for him." Turning, she left in a swirl of black silk-and-velvet skirts.

Shaking her head, she wondered who in the world might be coming. Well, at least she knew it was a he. Turning, she trotted back in through the side door to the castle, the door that led from the kitchen to the stables. The brick portion of the castle was incredibly hot with the heat of all the ovens, as usual, Cook's helpers in white aprons scurrying around busily.

She managed to weave her way throughout the scurrying helpers, and ran up the short flight of three steps to the main hallway of the castle. In front of her were a series of doors, leading to various closets and rooms; to her left, the grand entrance hall, and to her right, another hallway. She turned to the right with the ease of long practice, trotting down the hall and turning right again.

She was just beginning to climb the grand, red-carpeted set of stairs that led to the second floor when she heard Lianne's voice, calling her. "Rell-aaa!" she called sweetly, voice coming from inside the music room.

That sweet tone could mean only one thing: trouble. "I'm busy," she yelled back, trotting up the stairs hurriedly before she could get in trouble for talking to Lianne in such a tone. On the second floor was long row of guest rooms; she picked one, mostly at random, and darting inside, closing the door behind her.

Pulling the key that would open all the doors in the castle from her pocket, she locked the door behind her; that way, Lianne wouldn't be able to find her. _Sometimes being a servant who has to go everywhere comes in handy._

Lianne's voice came floating insistently up the stairs, her tone becoming impatient. _Hah. Even if she finds me, Rhianna told me to do this, so I can't get in trouble for it. Not that Lianne really cares..._

Turning around, she looked about the room thoughtfully, surveying her surroundings. This was what Rhianna called the Red Room; the curtains, floor tile, walls, everything was set in various shades of red, everything from almost-pink to deep scarlet. The room itself was fairly extravagant, with its huge, currently unmade, four-poster canopy bed--red, of course--and its large oak wardrobe and golden-trimmed mirror. All in all, though, it was just right to make the occupant think he was an honored guest, but not much more than that.

It was just too bad she didn't know what kind of guest to expect. If she had, she might have been able to pick a guest room he was likely to enjoy staying in; hopefully, whoever he was, he liked red.

Strolling confidently over to the closet set in one corner, she pulled it open, revealing a large amount of dust, a wicker basket, and several of Lianne and Anastasia's leftover gowns, all of them from about the age of twelve. Wrinkling her nose and trying not to sneeze at the dust, she took the lid off the basket, pulling out the bedclothes contained within. Everything was here, from sheets to pillowcases to red velvet blanket.

The bed at last made, she returned to the closet, surveying the gowns within with a frown. True, most occupants of the room tended to use the wardrobe more than they did the closet, but one never knew. Frowning, she tried to think; _something_ had to be done with the old gowns.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. Grinning, she began to take the gowns out of the closet and fold them carefully, piling them on a nearby table. _I can take them to town with me the next time I have to go for groceries and sell them there--and, if I manage to hide them, I can even keep the money for myself._

Tucking the pile of clothing underneath her arm, she unlocked the door and glanced around. Neither of the sisters were anywhere in sight. Scurrying down the stairs, she took an immediate right into her own small room, setting them down on her hard mattress with a sigh of relief. The dresses had several years' worth of dust in the folds, and carrying them made her constantly want to sneeze.

Glancing around her room, she sighed, trying to think of a place to hide them up until her next visit to the market. She would have just put them in the closet, but it was barely big enough to fit her own meager possessions in; after all, the room itself was barely bigger than a closet. There was, however, just a slight, hand's span of space underneath the hard mattress that was her excuse for a bed...

Kneeling, she shoved the dresses into that bare amount of space beneath the bed. No one would ever look under there; the sorceress and her daughters tended to avoid going into Rella's room when they could help it.

Straightening and dusting off her knees, she started to walk towards the door to open it, but it flew open before she got there, almost hitting her in the nose. Glancing at the angry Lianne standing there, she winced. The door to her room had a lock, for when the sorceress wanted to lock her in, but the set of locks on it was different than all the others, and Rhianna was the only one that held the key.

"Why didn't you come when I called you, maid?" Lianne demanded, scowling furiously. "I had to look all over the house for you, you lazy piece of filth!"

"I'm sorry, milady!" she exclaimed. "So sorry..." Scuffing her foot along the floor, she stared at Lianne's huge feet. Sometimes being thought the simpleton the sisters often called her was good--with that in mind, she babbled on for a while about how sorry she was, how she would be oh so careful not to do anything like that again. Just for good measure, she stuttered on a few words.

Lianne was obviously becoming aggravated. "Oh, shut up!" she snapped. "I asked you, _why_ didn't you come?!"

She looked up, spreading her eyes wide. "Oh, see, I would have, I really would have, milady, bu-but Mistress Rhianna told me to go fix up the rooms for our guest, and I d-didn't want to get in t-t-t-trouble with the Mistress, you see, but if there's a-anything I can do for you, milady, a-anything at all, please do just tell me, I'll be right on it, I p-promise, I--"

Lianne yawned lazily. "I _was_ going to tell you to prepare Nightingale for a ride, but I'm not sure if a halfwit like you is up to it, now that I think about it."

"Oh, I'll go get her ready, milady, glad to, always glad to--" She scurried off in the general direction of the stables, continuing her speech about how glad she was to serve until she was certain Lianne was out of earshot.

Sighing, she sagged against the stable wall. _How long have I been here, anyway? Since I was ten...that was six years ago, not that I ever get a birthday party here. It's been far too long..._

She could still remember the day she had come here. She had fallen asleep in the back of her father's wagon as he had been haggling with a customer, and had woke to find herself tied hand and foot, carried in a large, dark, carriage. Rhianna had been sitting beside her, though she hadn't known who the sorceress was at that time.

Scared, she had kicked out at the sorceress with her bound feet, only to find herself slammed against the door of the carriage as Rhianna threw a spell at her. She had felt blood trickle inside her mouth, and when she opened her mouth to yell in pain, her one loose tooth had dropped onto the carriage floor.

She had managed to struggle into a sitting position, propped against the door, and somehow worked up the courage to glare at the sorceress, despite her overwhelming fear. "Who are you?" she had asked, trying not to let her teeth chatter in fright.

"I am Rhianna," the woman had told her, glaring icily. "I am a sorceress. I have kidnapped you from your father, and you're going to work as my scullery maid. You'll obey me and won't ask any more questions, or I'll throw you into the wall again."

She had blinked, wondering about the part about being kidnapped. She couldn't help but remember the fact that they had been nearly broke; she hadn't seen her father's records, but she did know that recently, her father hadn't been able to buy her any of the things she wanted, as he normally did when they visited the large Faires. He had even sold her mother's pearls the week before, which proved to Rella more than anything else that they were in deep financial trouble.

She had tried asking him what exactly had caused them to be so broke, but when asked, he had just mumbled something about gambling debts and left, scurrying to the front of his Faire stall. Remembering, she glared at the sorceress and, feeling bold, asked, "How much money did you pay him for me, and what lies did you tell him about how well I would be treated?"

The sorceress had hit her with that spell again, knocking her into the far door once more. This time, she slumped to the floor, and decided that to remain silent would be far better. She would wait until they got to this crazy woman's home; she would have to untie her then, so she could walk. She would escape then.

The carriage had finally stopped, and the sorceress got out and walked around to Rella's door. "Try to escape, and I will make your life a living hell," Rhianna had informed her shortly, and untied the rope binding her wrists and ankles. Rella had gotten out of the car and followed the woman placidly, at least for a while. Once the sorceress's back was turned, she had ran, feet trampling the carefully cultured lawn.

That was when a wall of fire had appeared in front of her. She had skidded to a halt as soon as she could, but she hadn't quite missed it, and her sleeve had caught on fire. She had screamed and tried to put it out, when it had gone out by itself, as the sorceress strolled casually over to her.

"I trust you won't try escaping again," was all she had said. Rella hadn't.

Her first view of the castle, gigantic and made of grey stone, looking entirely like an evil castle from a fairy tale, had been quite a forboding one. Somehow it didn't scare her as much as it might have, though; perhaps it was the absence of the bolt of lightning in the background that would have accompanied a castle in a tale.

The sorceress had taken her to the room that was still her's today, barely bigger than a closet, it's only furnishings a tiny table, a rock-hard mattress for a bed, and an incredibly tiny closet in one corner, already filled with a selection of plain white dresses, suited for doing servant's work. The only furnishings the bed had on it were a stiff pillow, and a single, cold sheet.

She had shivered through that entire night, and hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. When the sun finally shone in through the narrow slit that served as a window, the door had flown open, and Lianne and Anastasia had come bounding in, eager to peer at their newest maid.

Rella had only seen two young girls her age, who were potential friends. "Hello!" she had told them cheerfully, bounding out of bed with the endless energy of a ten-year-old. "I'm Rella, what's your names?"

Lianne and Anastasia had shared a look. "I'm Lianne, and this is my sister Anastasia," the brunette girl had explained haughtily. "We're Rhianna's daughters, and you're to wait on us, too." At that, the two girls had exchanged grins of arrogant delight.

They had then left her room, but Rella had still hoped, despite their attitude, that she might be able to become friends with them. After all, they were the only other ten-year-olds here. Her hopes were quickly dashed, though; Anastasia avoided her most of the day, and all her attempts at conversation with Lianne resulted in being told that she was a servant, and that she was acting like she was a noble lady herself. Then the girl would haughtily tell her to go do something.

She had explored the gigantic house when she got the chance, and was outside, exploring the equally gigantic gardens, when she came upon a cluster of nothing but rosebushes. She had gasped with delight; she loved roses, and always had. Hunting around eagerly, she had found a very beautiful white rose, and had gingerly plucked it from among the thorns, holding it to her nose to breathe in the delicate scent.

"You're not supposed to pick flowers in the gardens," Anastasia's annoying voice called from the entranceway to the gardens.

She looked up. "I'm just going to give it some water and let it grow in my room," she had replied defensively. "What's the harm in that?"

The other girl didn't look convinced. "Mother will fuss when she finds out."  
"She won't find out if you don't tell her," Rella had replied sensibly.

She had thought Anastasia would keep the rose she had picked a secret, but found out later than the other girl had told on her. The sorceress, upon finding out, had smacked her in the side of the face, told her quite firmly that the flowers weren't to be picked, and sent her to groom the horses.

"I can't _stand_ it here!" she had fumed, stomping out to the stables. "Rhianna is cruel, Lianne's a brat, and Anastasia is a two-faced little tattletale!" Storming into the tack room, she had grabbed a currycomb and made her way into Raven's stall.

Hello! the horse had greeted her as she walked into his stall.

She dropped the currycomb in the hay, staring at the large black stallion. "What?"

I said, hello. Didn't you hear me?

She blinked, still staring, now with her mouth hanging open. "Are you...are you _talking _to me? You, the horse, Raven?"

Of course I am, silly. You don't see anyone else here, do you?

Blinking, she shook herself, and began hunting for the currycomb. Finding it at last, she straightened. "Can you talk to all humans?"

No, you are the first twolegs I can talk to. I have tried talking to the others, but they never seem to hear me, so I eventually gave up.

Over the next few days, she had eventually become friends with all of the horses in Rhianna's stable, and eventually became used to her odd, newfound ability. Raven was her favorite, though she didn't dare tell any of the others as much; his horse sense appealed to her common sense, and he had an abundance of horse sense. They had been her only friends in Rhianna's castle--besides Cook--and she didn't know if she could have made it through without them.

That in mind, she jerked out of her reverie, moving towards the tack room to get Nightingale's saddle and bridle. Setting them on the rack conveniently situated on the stall door, she picked up a currycomb and headed inside to groom the gray mare. Is it exercise time? she asked happily. 

Rella shook her head. "No, Nightingale. I'm afraid not. Lianne is going to ride you."

Lianne came into view, snickering. "Still talking to horses, are you?"

Rella gazed, wide-eyed, at the mare, replying as if she thought Nightingale was the one who had spoken: "Oh, of course! It is so wonderful that I'm able to talk to you, don't you think?"

"The horse isn't talking, halfwit. I am." Strolling into the stall, Lianne snatched the currycomb out of Rella's hand. "Simpletons aren't allowed to tend to the horses of this household."

"Oh, if you don't want me to do it, milady, then I won't," she responded, sounding incredibly happy. "But if there's anything I can do for you, do let me know, I'll get to it right away, you know I will, nobody happier to work than me--" Still chattering to herself, she skipped away down the stable hall and ducked into Raven's stall to hide.

_Nightingale?_ she thought tentatively. She'd never tried actually addressing the horses in her own thoughts before, but it seemed to make sense that it would work. After all, the horses responded in her thoughts.

Yes? Nightingale's voice said in her head. She smiled softly. _Nightingale, do me a favor and make this as hard for Lianne as possible._

More than glad to, Nightingale responded in a happily mischevious manner. Rella hid a gigle.

She watched Lianne leading Nightingale out, swatting absently at Raven as he nudged at her pocket, searching for carrots. _Silly,_ she thought at him fondly. _If I had a carrot, I'd give you one._

Watching Lianne and her mare, she hid a laugh--Lianne hadn't been watching for that clever trick horses have of holding in their breath when the girth is tightened and only exhaling once their rider has tightened the girth, so that the girth is nice and loose, just the way the horse likes it. Nightingale had gotten away with that trick--Lianne was almost certain to fall off in _this_ riding session.

For a moment, she wavered, wondering if she should tell Lianne about it. Riding with a loose girth could be very, very dangerous...

_ No. No, they've beaten me all too often without a thought for my safety. It's payback time._

Sneaking around the corner of the stable, she headed back into the castle.


	3. Chasing a Thief

The merchant immediately fell in love with the intricate designs of the sisters' old dresses, 'ooh'ing, 'aah'ing, and unabashedly admiring them. When he at last named his sum, Rella had to bite back a gasp of surprise; it was more money than she could ever remember seeing in her life. She agreed at once, surprising the merchant in turn; as she dumped into her pack two gold coins and a handful of silver, she couldn't help but feel satisifed, despite knowing the merchant had gotten far cheaper a deal than he had expected.

The rapidly spreading purple bruise on her left cheek gained her silent attention from several of the passers-by in the Faire; she did her best to ignore them, although it wasn't easy. Lianne had indeed fallen off, twisting her ankle; she had told her mother that Rella had tacked up her horse, and purposely left the girth loose. Rella had protested, but it had been a matter of Lianne's word against hers; naturally, Rella had been beaten.

Shaking her head to banish the less-than-cheerful thoughts, she remembered the large amount of coin that now lay within her purse and smiled. _Wonder what I can find to use it on? I wish I could use it to hire someone to help me escape from Rhianna, but no one wants to face down a sorceress--_

Reaching for her purse absent-mindedly, she encountered nothing but a pair of cut strings. Looking up, she spotted a single, small boy dressed in little but rags, running away as fast as his small, underfed legs could take him.

__

First I get beaten, now I get robbed! I do not_ deserve this! _Hiking up her skirts with no regard for dignity, she began to chase after the thief boy, ignoring the stares she got. _I know he's probably starving and just trying to get something to eat, but that's _my _money and it is_ not _going to get stolen!_

The boy, looking over his shoulder, realized she was on his trail and began to run faster. Rella, however, was a fast enough runner when she chose--the distance between them was growing less with every step of her bare feet upon the cobblestone street. The thief, sweating, glanced behind himself again, swore fluently, and darted into an alleyway.

Following, she rounded the corner, only to see him drop down into a pipe, heading down into the sewers. Halting to catch her breath, she took a moment to think. _Do I _really _want to follow him down there? I don't even want to think about what's in that water, and I'll definitely ruin my dress. Still... _

Mouth set, she pulled her skirt up just above her knees, tying it there with no regard for the stares she was getting at this indecent display of flesh. _That's the most money I've ever seen in my life, and I'm not going to lose what might be my one chance to get out of Rhianna's to some scrawny thief boy. At least, not just because he goes into the sewers._ Taking a deep breath, she lowered herself into the sewers and into knee-deep water a mucky shade of green.

She stretched her hands out to either side, wincing as she encountered something slimy on the wall. _It's pitch dark down here, though, so I have to touch the walls to keep my balance. _Doing her best not to think about what the water contained or what she was touching on the wall, she began to wade.

She was surprised when her left hand suddenly encountered a gaping hole in the wall, and she barely avoided falling face-first into sewer water, which was a fate she would definitely like to avoid. Turning, she blinked.

The hole led directly to a small cave within the sewers, a tiny crevice that had been made into something of a home. A small, flat pallet that looked about as comfortable as Rella's own bed lay on the floor, and a tiny lamp flickered in the corner, barely giving enough light to see by. A rat skull lay in one corner, and a giant spider was perched on one wall. The thief boy was sitting on the pallet, eagerly emptying her purse out onto his bed and counting the coins.

Looking up and noticing her, his eyes got even bigger than they already were. Swearing fluently and with emotion, he clutched her purse against his chest as his eyes narrowed into a somewhat feeble glare.

Grimacing, she stepped inside the thief's home, the floor of which was at least free of slimy, dirty water. Looking at him, she returned the glare, doing her best to imitate the governess her father had hired when she was six to teach her to read, write, and do arithmetic. "Give me my money," she demanded of him, deciding not to elaborate.

"Finders, keepers, losers, weepers," the boy spouted off, sticking out his tongue at her.

"Look, I don't think cutting the strings and stealing someone's purse counts as finding. And you might _want_ to give it back to me. After all, I know where you live, now; I could call one of the city guards and report you as a thief, and tell them where to find you."

His eyes widened. "Ye wouldn'."

"Oh yes I would, believe me."

Sighing, he looked down at the money he still clutched in his small, dirty hands. "Bu'....this is more gold than I ever seen in me lif' entire! I jus' wanna eat!" Looking up at her, his lower lip wobbled, and his eyes filled with tears.

She sighed; on second look, the thief boy couldn't have been much older than eight. _He's trying to make you pity him, _she reminded herself grumpily. Tears began to run down his small face. _Yeah, and it's working._

She held out her hand expectantly. The boy, sniffling, handed her purse to her reluctantly, and wiped the back of his hand across his face, only succeeding in smearing more dirt across it. Rolling her eyes, she plucked out two small silver coins from her pile; she still had more than plenty left. Solemnly, she handed those two coins to the small boy.

His eyes bugged out; obviously, he had expected her just to take her money and leave. _If I was sane, I probably would have._ Then, surprisingly, he leapt at her and wrapped his small arms around her, sniffling. "Thankee ma'am! I twon't ne'er forget ye was kind to me, miss." Letting go of her, he wiped the back of his hand across his face again. "And if ye ever need me, jes' ask fer Shark."

She didn't think it was very likely she'd ever need the help of a small, underfed thief, but didn't say as much. Instead, she sighed indulgently and left, bracing herself for the wretched trip back through the sewers.

By some miracle, Rhianna was in town when Rella returned, and she managed to sneak up to her room without anyone noticing she was drenched in muck and carrying a large sum of gold and silver. Once safely inside her small room, she stripped hastily, dumping the entire wash pitcher of freezing water over her head without regard for the mess it made on the floor. Taking her wash rag, she scrubbed with it until she was pink, but still regretted the absence of a bar of soap to get herself properly clean.

Taking her purse, she opened the closet door, picking up a small box within, one that was concealed to the eye of a casual observer by her small collection of clothes. Placing both purse and box atop her bed, she removed a small necklace from about her neck, a single piece of small cord from which hung a tiny gold key. The key she inserted into the lock of the box, opening it with a click. Depositing the purse inside the box, she grinned as she locked it shut, placed it back inside the closet, and hung the key around her neck. Nobody would be getting to her money anytime soon.

__

It's just too bad Rhianna doesn't know about it, and hasn't spelled it to resist lock picks like all the other locks here. A really determined thief could probably still get into it.

It was well past sunset when Rella was at last able to retire to her room for the night. Feeling entirely exhausted--not that that was unusual at the end of a day's work--she barely managed to change into the long shirt she wore for a nightgown before toppling over into her bed.

At least the bed wasn't quite as barren and uncomfortable as it had been when she first came here. After Rella grew out of her first set of clothes, Rhianna had to supply another, but Rella had managed to keep some of her old dresses. She had taken her hard pillow out of her pillowcase and stuffed the case instead with one or two of the dresses; it still wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was much better than the old pillow. She had also taken her sewing kit and several of her heaviest winter dresses and cut them into rags, then sewed them back together into a rough blanket. It was still thin and cold sometimes in winter, but at least she had more to cover her than merely a sheet.

That night, Rella found herself drifting in that state between dreams and awakening, overhearing a conversation. She wasn't entirely sure if the conversation was a dream or something she was actually hearing; so, she decided not to wake up all the way, but instead to keep still and listen.

"Poor little girl," a voice said fondly, somewhere over her head. The voice was definitely female, and certainly kind and motherly. The speaker sounded somehow familar to Rella; the thought entered her head that if she had ever known her mother, that was what she would have sounded like.

"_I _don't think she's so poor," said a second voice. This voice was also female, but quite different from the first. It was younger, for one thing, and not anywhere near as kind. Rella got the impression that the speaker wasn't _really_ stuck-up or arrogant, she just took a long time to warm up to people.

"She has clothes, she has food, she has a roof over her head," the second voice continued. "She's better off than plenty of people out on the streets. She could have escaped from the sorceress a long time ago if she wanted to, but she hasn't."

"Don't be silly, Emerald," the first voice chided. "Rhianna could have hunted her down easily, and might even have killed her in a fit of temper. At least she has enough good sense to see that. Some wouldn't."

The second speaker sighed. "Ruby, you're too patient with people. I really don't see what the big deal is about this girl."

"And you're too impatient with people, Emerald. And whether you see it or not, we have to do what Diamond and Opal command--and I think they were right about her."

"I'm not impatient, I just have a low tolerance for fools. And like I said, I don't see what the big deal is, even if she does have fairy blood."

"It is not only fairy blood, but possibly royal blood as well, which counts for something. Now shush. She will wake soon. We must go; it isn't time quite yet."

Rella woke all at once, sitting straight upright in the center of her hard mattress. The moon shone brightly in through the small window, illuminating the entire room as bright as if it were morning. 

There was nobody in the room but Rella herself.

__

Just dreams, she told herself. _I dreamed that whole conversation, that's all. You've had strange dreams before._

Lowering her head, she was asleep again at once.


	4. An Interesting Visitor

The sound of harp music drifted in from the rooms below, awakening her, but it was quite a pleasant awakening. The player had skill far beyond that of Lianne and Anastasia, skill certainly worthy of a Bard. For a moment, she stretched and relaxed in her bed, imagining for just one moment that she was somewhere other than here.

The illusion didn't last for long. Her reverie was almost instantly shattered as Lianne pounded savagely upon her door. "Rella!" her screeching voice demanded. "Get up! The guest we were expecting has arrived! Get up and get things ready for him, you stupid lazy slut!" Lianne's stomping footsteps echoed down the hall.

__

Why do they insist on calling me a slut when surely they know I haven't been anywhere near a male for more than two seconds since I was ten? she wondered, with a touch of ironic humor. "I'm up, I'm up," she called half-heartedly, rolling out of bed and landing on the floor with a thump.

So, their guest had arrived. _Maybe I'll finally get to see who he is. I wonder--is he the one playing the harp? If he is, I hope he stays the night. It would be nice to wake up this way again._

Rising to her feet, she pulled on a plain linen dress that had once been white was now a sort of brownish-gray. Running a comb through her tangled hair, she heaved a sigh and emerged from her room. 

As she emerged into the hallway, she could hear Rhianna's cultured voice from the direction of the entrance hall. "Surely you could make time to stay for dinner, Sir Bard. It would please my daughters and myself greatly, I assure you."

"I promise you, Mistress Rhianna, I would love to stay," a light, dancing voice replied. The voice was definitely male, with a light accent to it that spoke of country origins. All in all, it was a voice that was entirely pleasant to listen to, and Rella couldn't help but wonder if he sang as well as he played the harp. "However, I must soon be on the road again. I fear if I tarry here long enough for dinner, I will be late getting on my way, and I won't be able to find an inn willing to accept a customer so late in the evening."

"Why then, Sir Bard, we would be glad to extend our hospitality to you for the night, if it pleases you."

"Indeed, how could I deny the chance to spend the night in a house with such a lovely mistress?"

Rhianna chuckled. Taking a chance, Rella took a peek around the corner into the entrance hall.

A young man stood before Rhianna, dressed in a white shirt and tan breeches, with the scarlet tunic and overrobe of a Bard. He carried a harpcase under his arm--_he _was _the one playing the harp_--and his brown hair came down to his shoulders, somewhat long to be considered quite in fashion. He didn't look too much older than Rella herself.

"Rella!" Anastasia called--whined, really. Turning, she found Anastasia right behind her. "Go tell the cooks to prepare lunch and dinner for an extra person, halfwit. After that, the chimney needs to be scrubbed, the windows need to be washed, and Lianne and I have gowns from yesterday that need to be washed, too. Did you get the room ready for our guest last night?"

"Yes, milady," she sighed, bobbing hastily into a curtsy before Anastasia could claim she was being insolent.

"Well then, you have work to do! What are you waiting for?!"

Rella curtsied again and scurried off obediently, entirely glad for an excuse to leave before Anastasia could think of anything _else_ for her to do. Navigating the hallways with ease, she came to the kitchen in record time. Cook, looking up, saw who it was and smiled. "'Ello, girly," she said. "Come ta break yer fast, such as it is, eh?"

Cook was a plump, kindly old lady with brown hair that was rapidly going to gray in her old age--the head cook and manager of the kitchens, as far as anyone knew, she didn't have a name besides Cook. She was also the only human in the entire household that could honestly be said to _like_ Rella. Cook had rather unofficially adopted her within the first few days of her residence here, making sure she got enough to eat even when she was denied meals. Without Cook, her life would have been much worse--not that it wasn't bad already.

She shook her head. "Actually, I came to tell you to prepare lunch and dinner for an extra person. Our guest came--he's a Bard, and apparently he's going to be spending the night. Rhianna's working her charms again."

Shaking her head, Cook clucked at her and shook a rolling pin in her general direction. "No matter what ye came fer, ye ought ter have some food while ye're down here with us kitchen folk. Ye need fattenin' up, girly! Here, we have some leftovers still from th' ladies' breakfast; take a roll, here ye go, and a lil' bit o' cheese, and a apple, there ye go. Now be a good girl and sit yerself down and eat, it won't do to be starvin' yerself and faintin' in the middle of workin'."

Smiling, Rella obediently sat and began to eat. The roll wasn't very good cold and without butter, and the cheese had a little bit of mold, but the apple was good, at least, and it was enough to at least take the edge off the hunger that had been gnawing at her ever since her rude awakening. She generally never got much besides table scraps; after all, she was just the scullery maid. Cook did the best she could, but she was rarely really full.

Finished, she wiped the crumbs off her hands and skirt and stood. Cook, who had been hovering over her to make sure she ate every last bit, patted her on the shoulder and went back to her work, satisfied. Smiling, she headed back up the small flight of stairs out of the kitchen.

Trotting down the hallway, she turned to the right, heading for the stairs. Once on the second floor, she turned right again, trotting down a set of twisting, iron stairs that led back down to another hallway on the first floor. This hallway was somewhat hidden; it was adjacent to the entrance hall, but the only way to get to it was the way that Rella had come. This was where Rhianna's room and the rooms of her daughters lay.

Rella almost ran into Lianne, who was standing in the center of the hallway, effectively blocking it with her fat body. "There you are, you worthless piece of filth. I hope you're coming for mine and Lianne's and Mother's gowns, because they need to be washed, and I'm supposed to tell you to scrub the entrance hall when you're done with the chimney and the windows. Get to it, don't stand there gawking at me like an idiot!"

The other girl pushed past her rudely and headed up the stairs, leaving Rella seething. _Wash the gowns, never mind that there's only about two of them to wash and nobody's going to wear them for another month or so. Scrub the entrance hall--the hall is _clean,_ I scrubbed it just yesterday! This is not_ fair!

__

One of these days those pompous bitches are going to work me to death. Then maybe they'll stop calling me worthless when they see how hard it is to get by without me to do all their work.

Then again, I doubt it. If they work me to death, they'll just get another maid.

Still fuming, she turned to Lianne's room, the first on the left. As she unlocked the door and shoved it open, Rhianna's grey cat came slinking out of the room. Rella resisted the temptation to kick it; it hissed at her as she went past, as if it knew what she was thinking.

She finished with the laundry fairly quickly; after all, she only had four gowns to wash. With the laundry hung up to dry, she went to the supply shelf in the kitchen and grabbed a bucket and a jar of Rhianna's special window washing solution. The windows she scrubbed at viciously, taking out some of her anger at the sorceress and daughters, until Rhianna found her and told her sharply not to scrub so hard, for she might break the glass.

__

As if that's really going to happen. The glass isn't that fragile, and I'm not scrubbing that hard.

The chimney was next. Armed with a scrub brush and not much else, she made her way to the large chimney at the rightmost edge of the entrance hall, climbing inside and beginning to clean, scrubbing viciously and getting rid of the anger that hadn't dissipated when she scrubbed the windows.

She had learned a long time ago that it was best to take out her fury by scrubbing something rather than answering back to the sorceress or something equally foolish. Answering back would only get her beaten, but no matter how viciously she scrubbed, she could simply say she was getting off a difficult stain.

__

Unless I'm scrubbing the windows. After all, they might break.

Chimney clean, she climbed out, wincing at the ashes and soot that covered her hands--and most of the rest of her body. Surveying herself in dismay, she heaved a sigh. _I'll have to take a bath before I do anything else, and I bet it's a cold one. I _hate _cold baths!_

A voice came floating down the hallway, humming off-tune very annoyingly. She winced again as Lianne came skipping into the hall merrily. The older girl sneered at her. "Look! It's Cinderella! Get it? Cinder? Rella?" She let out a peal of high-pitched laughter, standing in the hallway with her hands on her hips. "Mother sent me to tell you to scrub the entrance hall _now_, especially now that you've gotten it _more_ dirty." She wrinkled her nose. "You'd better take a bath first, though, cinder girl!" Laughing again, she skipped off down the hallway, taking up her annoying humming again.

After a quick dousing in freezing water and changing into another dress, she found herself in the entrance hall, scrubbing fiercely at the spots on the tiled floor where she had gotten soot and ashes. Lianne's mockery had brought back all her fierce anger; she was entirely glad she had something else to scrub, now.

Dipping her rag back into the bucket of soapy water, she glanced up, happening to admire the entrance hall for a moment, as she always did when she came into the room. The domed ceiling was the tallest part in the entire castle, stretching several miles above the floor. There was a mural painted on it; Rella didn't know what it was of, for the only part of the castle where it could be seen clearly was on the third floor. The third floor was an attic, an ancient section of the castle; everyone was forbidden to go there, even Lianne and Anastasia.

Rhianna and the Bard were now long gone, and the entry hall was empty, Rella's footsteps giving off echoes off the domed ceiling several feet above. The ceiling had some mural painted on it; the only place it could be seen clearly was in the uppermost part of the castle, the ancient part that Rella had never been in. Turning to the left, she headed up the grand flight of stairs, a twisting spiral that might have made those without a head for heights somewhat dizzy.

Dipping the cloth into the water again, she gazed at the bucket, watching the bubbles rise for a moment. The silence of the empty entrance hall grew stifling.

She had to do _something_ to break it. Softly, she began to hum, then to sing quietly, almost under her breath. The song was from a play that had been all the rage last month; she had never seen the play, but Lianne and Anastasia had. They had come home singing all the songs, and Rella had overheard this one and found she liked it.

"You have a beautiful voice," a voice said from behind her. Startled, she whirled around, dropping the rag.

Behind her stood the Bard, the one who had been with Rhianna earlier. Smiling, he swept her a bow. "Begging your pardon. I didn't intend to frighten you, I assure you."

She blinked, staring, and reached for the rag again without really looking at it. "Um...thanks," she managed to get out, momentarily speechless. She wasn't used to Rhianna's guests taking _any_ interest in the scullery maid, no matter how small.

The man surveyed her, a curious expression on his face. Gulping, she made herself look away and began to scrub the floor again. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Lianne, coming down the hall behind him. "Oh, _hello_, sir Bard! I was _wondering_ where you went," Lianne tittered. "If you'll just come this way, dinner is ready..."

Rhianna made her wait on them at dinner that night, taking platters of food from Cook and carrying them to table, letting all four diners get their fill before handing the platter back to Cook and retreating into the shadows, to wait until she was called upon. She was somewhat glad for the opportunity; waiting on the four wasn't really hard work at all, and it gave her a chance to observe their guest.

Really, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Lianne and Anastasia had apparently decided that, with his handsome features, charming manner, and high status, he was quite desirable material, and had turned their charm on full blast. Unfortunately for them, though, the sister's idea of charm was more likely to repel someone than attract him. They had never quite figured that out, and chattered on continously, giving the Bard sly smiles and flutters of eyelashes.

Noticing the look on his face, Rella grinned, and was glad that the shadows in the corner where she stood hid her face from sight. The Bard looked like he would rather be anywhere but here--something Rella could definitely sympathize with. He looked as if he would very much like to leave, but, having already agreed to spend the night, could hardly do so without appearing rude and insulting Rhianna.

Rella noticed that Rhianna was trying to charm the young man as well, and shook her head. Rhianna's charm was much more subtle and much likelier to work than the charm of her daughters, but the Bard, if anything, looked even more put off by the sorceress's subtle flirtations.

__

Rhianna, Lianne, and Anastasia, all trying to seduce him at once. Poor guy.

After dinner, much to her amusement, the Bard pleaded weariness and fled to his room at the first opportunity. Rhianna and daughters left more gracefully after that, Lianne and Anastasia pouting and looking quite disappointed that their attempts to snare the young man had failed. Cook managed to sneak Rella into the kitchens and get some food in her stomach afterwards; Rella thanked the woman and headed to her room, every bit as tired as their guest had claimed to be.

She sank into bed, and was asleep before her head touched the pillow.

Between dreaming and awakening, Rella found herself hearing voices. They were talking about her rather than to her, so she kept quiet and listened. The voices sounded familar, and after a moment, she identified them as the ones she had heard before, the unknown speakers named Emerald and Ruby.

"The poor dear," the motherly one called Ruby said kindly. "They've been working her to death. I wonder how she manages?"

"I still don't see what the big deal is," said a second voice, the one called Emerald who took time to warm up to people. "I'm not trying to be cruel, but if we helped out every mistreated child in the world we'd have our hands too full to do much of anything."

Ruby sighed. "Emerald, this girl is something special. Can't you feel it in her? She not only needs but deserves our help."

"I know she's of fairy blood and all that--"

"_Royal_ fairy blood," Ruby interrupted.

"Royal fairy blood, fine. But there have been halflings out there before. We never went to help any of them, so why should we start now?"

"But we _did_ go to help some of them, Emerald. A long time ago, any halfling that showed up with magic powers, we took to the Faerie Lands and trained. That's a historical fact."

"What makes you think this girl even has magic powers?"

"I can _feel_ it, Emerald. Can't you? Look at her--really _look_ at her, not just with your eyes but with your magic and with your heart."

A moment of silence. Then an astonished whisper from Emerald, "You know...I think you may just be right."

Then Emerald was back to her normal self. "Okay, so she at least has magic. That doesn't mean we _have_ to help her." She didn't sound as convinced as she had a moment before, though.

Ruby chuckled. "You see what's special about her just as much as I do, Emerald. We'll help her."

Emerald sighed. "Okay, okay. We'll help her. But not right now, and she's about to wake up. Let's go!"

Rella came awake all at once and sat up, blinking. The waning moon shone into her room, illuminating it just as brightly as the night before. The room was empty, with no sign whatsoever of the mysterious speakers.


	5. Voices and a Broken Rib

Over the next several days, Rella discovered that every night, neat as clockwork, just before she awoke, she would overhear conversations between Emerald and Ruby. The two would talk to each other about her, but always, she would wake and no one would be there.

At first she thought she might be going insane. _After all, isn't hearing voices a sign of insanity?_ But then, she thought better of the idea. _They talk about me, not to me. And they haven't told me to burn things or kill somone or _anything_ so far, so...I guess I'm not going insane._

Over time, she managed to accept it without needing much of an explanation. It _could_ just be a dream, after all.

"Do you think she can hear us?" Emerald asked Ruby one night.

"I doubt it. I don't think her magic power is that strong, at least not while she remains untrained."

"That's another thing. How long do you think we can let her go untrained? She could be dangerous like that."

"Unless something traumatic happens to her to awaken her power, I don't think we have to worry. After all, she survived for sixteen years completely untrained, and in some pretty bad conditions too. If she was going to lose control and hurt someone, I think it would already have happened."

She had woken up then, leaving her wondering if they really _were_ talking about her. After all, if they were, that would mean she had magic...

__

Nonsense. I'm no sorceress, not like Rhianna. And it's probably all a dream, anyway.

With that thought, she went back to sleep.

"Do you think we should help her out yet?" Emerald's voice asked.

"No...no, not yet. The poor dear is quite abused, but I don't think it's time we helped out...not quite yet, at least. Soon, though."

Emerald chuckled. "Do you know, I think I've begun to see what you see in her after all. I've come to respect her, at the very least. Her life is harder than I thought; not everyone could take it so well."

"What? Emerald is actually agreeing with me? Is it a sign of the apocalypse?"

They had both laughed, and that was when Rella had awoke, to find nobody there.

Over time, Rella began to anticipate and look forward to the voices every night. Emerald and Ruby revealed more to her about themselves in those conversations than they knew, and judging by what she had heard, they didn't even know she could hear them. She even began to think of the unknown two as her friends; in her mind, Ruby became the mother and Emerald the sister she had never had.

Preparations for the Prince's ball were in full swing. Lianne and Anastasia tittered and chattered about it constantly, annoying Rella to no end. She didn't even bother asking Rhianna if she could go; despite the wording of the invitation, she knew the sorceress would refuse her petition. She wasn't even sure she really wanted to go, either, so that was another reason not to ask.

For the next several days, Rella's life sank to an all-time low. All three worked her harder than they ever had before, as if to make absolutely certain she would be so exhausted she wouldn't even _ask_ if she could go to the ball. The only highlights of her day were the time she spent in the stables, in the kitchens with Cook, or when she overheard Emerald and Ruby's conversations.

At one moment, thoroughly exhausted, she fell asleep in the middle of grooming Nightingale. She was rather rudely awakened by Lianne's screech of anger at finding her leaning against the horse's side, snoring, horse placidly chewing at hay. Lianne had snatched the currycomb from her hand, slapped her across the face, and set about grooming the horse herself, entirely too rough to be at all good for the horse. Rella, still half-asleep and not thinking clearly, had opened her mouth to try to correct Lianne.

She tried to soak out her aches and pains later in a bath, but since all she had was cold water, it didn't do much, and she was entirely stiff for the next several days.

"Here," Rhianna commanded, pressing a large piece of parchment into her hand. "Take this to Johnsen Tailor; you know where his shop is in town. Pay him out of this." The sorceress thrust a heavy purse into her other hand. "If I find you've stolen a single cent from that purse, I promise you that you will pay for it--and I don't mean in money, either."

__

As if I needed it, Rella thought, trudging along the dusty city streets, weaving her way through the crowd expertly. _Little does she know, I have still have a good deal of money left in room, and I haven't spent a single cent of it yet._

Johnsen Tailor was well known as the best tailor in the entire country. She made her way to his shop with ease, but then was forced to stand in line for close to three hours while other, more important women placed their own orders with the tailor, each and every one of them for the Prince's ball.

__

And I have to wait, because Rhianna sent her maid instead of going herself and they take one look at me and assume I'm no one important. If they know who sent me, I'd probably be at the front of the line.

At last her turn came, and she handed the tailor the parchment without a word. He skimmed over it, frowning lightly, and at last looked at her. "I shall have to be paid extra if I'm to have the two dresses ready today, especially with as much other work as I have to do for the ball," he warned her.

"It's all right," she told him, rubbing the side of her head; she was beginning to get a headache from the dust and the noise of the city. "If she says she wants it today, she wants it done today, and she doesn't care what it costs."

The tailor nodded, and named a price so high Rella barely kept her mouth from dropping open. She handed the purse to the tailor, letting him count out his own coins, and sank into a chair in the center of the room, still feeling quite stunned.

__

I can't believe it! Ten thousand in gold for--for two dresses! _I mean, I know it costs extra to have it done today, especially with all these other women buying dresses for the ball--but still! That's just--ridiculous, that's what it is!_

The most amazing part was, the purse was still heavy.

It took five more hours for the dress to be done, and the sun had set a long time ago. At last the tailor emerged, holding two dresses in Anastasia's and Lianne's styles. Lianne's was in dark green, Anastasia's in a light pink, and they both had a tight bodice and a gigantic skirt. Rella could just imagine what they would look like when they put them on, and momentarily entertained visions of the two going to the ball, only to be laughed at by the Prince.

The idea was so funny and satisfying that she held on to it as she made her way back through the crowd, clutching the dresses, on her way back to Rhianna's.

She was greeted rather rudely when she got back home. "Where have you been?" Rhianna demanded as soon as she walked into the entrance hall.

"I...at Johnsen Tailor's, getting the dresses," she responded, then realized she was being, by Rhianna's standards, rude. "Milady," she added hastily, dropping into a curtsy.

Rhianna buffeted her roughly in the side of the head, making her lose her already delicate balance and topple over ungracefully, dropping the dresses. "For _eight hours?_" she asked acidly, scowling.

"There was a crowd!" she protested, trying to climb to her feet. "Everyone else was getting dresses for the ball--I'm sorry, milady, really I am!"

Rhianna hit her again, knocking her back down before she could climb to her feet, and kicked her with her high heels afterwards. The next few moments were a buffet of blows, and Rella's world narrowed to staying curled into a ball, doing her best to protect her head with her arms and trying to ignore the pain.

When the high heel of Rhianna's shoe connected with Rella's ribs for the fifth time and something snapped with a loud, audible crack, she cried out; she couldn't help it. Rhianna, at last realizing her anger had gotten perhaps a little out of control, backed off, and then left, leaving Rella lying on the floor with uncontrollable tears streaming down her cheeks.

At last she tried to get up, but when she moved, a wave of such unbearable pain washed over her that she lost consciousness, head banging roughly against the floor.

When she woke again, she was in her bed; evidently, someone had found her and carried her up here. Her side still hurt unbearably, but as long as she didn't try to move, she thought she would be all right.

__

Wonder if Rhianna will actually hire a healer to come take care of me, or if she'll try to make me work with a broken rib?

A sob escaped her as her side gave a particuarly sharp throb, and she banged her fist against her mattress in silent fury towards the sorceress. _I never even _do _anything, yet I get treated like everything is my fault! That bitch broke my _rib_, and why? Because there was a crowd at the tailor's, and she has to have her daughter's dresses _now, _instead of waiting a few days._

Everything is always my fault around here. If Rhianna's cat walks in front of Lianne and she's too stupid to see it and trips and falls, I'm_ the one that gets in trouble! And, of course, now that I'm conveniently up here, they'll lock me in and "forget" to feed me for the next few days._

Unable to move for the pain of her broken rib, she at last fumed herself to sleep, hands clenched into fists.


	6. Meeting...Faeries?

"Psst. Rella. Rella! Wake up!"

Someone was calling her, someone trying to wake her up. She muttered something about it being the middle of the night and started to roll over, but her rib sent a sharp pain throughout her entire body, and she let out a rather loud cry, eyes opening of their own will.

Opening her mouth to yell at the intruder, she saw who--or what--had woken her up. Closing her mouth, she gulped, and stared.

The moonlight fell gracefully in through her window, illuminating an inhumanly tall woman dressed in a scarlet dress, a dress that came down to just above her knees, showing an indecent amount of naked flesh. Her brown hair was done up a single braid; from her seat upon the corner of the bed, it fell all the way down to the floor. She went barefoot, but the most amazing thing of all was the five-foot gossamer wings that spread from her back, threaded with silver, gold scarlet--a veritable rainbow of colors. They were shaped like a butterfly's wings.

She stared. And stared some more. That was when comprehension dawned. "Oh. I'm dreaming about a fairy. Well then, if all you woke me up for was a dream, can I go back to sleep?"

The fairy shook her head. "Rella, you're not dreaming," the voice said insistently. "How many dreams have you had where you ever felt pain? And I know your rib must hurt horribly, even now. This is important. Please don't fall back asleep."

She sighed, opening her eyes. "Okay, fine, so my rib hurts like hell," she said, exhaustion and pain making her rudely blunt. "So what are you, a fairy? And how do you know my name? And what's so important that I can't go back to sleep?"

A second figure stepped out into the light, emerging from the shadows nearby her closet. This girl also had wings on her back, although hers' had more silver and green than any other colors. That was where the similarities ended. This girl was a hands' width shorter than the other, with blond hair that fell just below her shoulders, worn loose as it was now. She went barefoot as well, and was dressed in an equally short and indecent dress, this one of green hue. The bottom of the dress was ripped in an almost-triangular pattern, obviously done on purpose rather than by accident. The new girl exposed even more skin than the first did; all in all, they weren't appropriate or decent at all.

The new girl sighed. "I told you she would be difficult, Ruby."

The first woman turned back to look at the girl with a frown. "I know you did, Emerald. But please let me handle this?"

Rella frowned, thinking. _Wait a second...Ruby and Emerald? I _thought _their voices sounded familar!_

"I know you two!" she exclaimed. The two looked straight at her, surprised. She flushed, but went on. "Every night for a while now, I hear you two talking right before I wake up. I thought it was just a dream, but..."

They both frowned. "I didn't think you would be able to hear us," Ruby said thoughtfully. "But...oh well, no matter. Yes, Rella, we are fairies. Tell me, would you like to get out of here?"

Rella stared. "Would I like to...get out of here? Of _course_ I'd like to get out of here! I _hate_ it here! But how could I? I mean, Rhianna is a sorceress, so she'll be able to find me, right? And besides which, I can't run away with this broken rib."

"That," Ruby told her, "is easily enough fixed."

The fairy reached out a hand, placing it lightly atop Rella's broken rib. She winced, but simply lay there, and was surprised to find that in a moment, her rib stopped hurting completely.

"There," Ruby said, sitting back and blinking. "Try moving now."

Slowly, experimentally, Rella sat up. There was no pain at all.

She stared. And stared some more. And at last said, "What did you do?"

Ruby smiled. "I healed you. It's easy enough, at least for a fairy. But we can help you get out of here, and we can protect you from Rhianna's magic."

"And would you like to go to the Prince's ball?" Emerald inquired from her corner.

Rella considered as she stretched out carefully, delighted to find that her broken rib was now completely healed. "Not really," she answered Emerald at last. "I wouldn't want to marry someone after having only known him for just one night, after all."

Emerald opened her mouth, but Ruby shook her head at her. "For now, let's just get you out of here," the fairy said, turning back to Rella.

"Why are you helping me?" Rella asked, suddenly suspicious. "If I go with you, what's the catch?"

"There is none," Emerald explained impatiently. "We're here to help you because you're of fairy blood, and everyone seems to think you're something special." Her snort showed what she thought of _that_ idea.

"She acts disdainful, but she really agrees with 'everyone,'" Ruby confided.

Rella found herself confused once more. "Fairy blood? _What_ fairy blood? Would anyone like to explain what's going on?"

Ruby shook her head. "Now you've confused the poor girl, Emerald. Don't worry about it for now, dear. We can explain things later. For now, let's get out of here before someone hears us talking and decides to investigate."

Nodding, Rella climbed out of bed, stretching. "If there's anything here you want, you had best pack it now," Emerald advised.

Nodding again, she grabbed the small pack she had reserved for those rare occasions when Rhianna and daughters went somewhere and decided to take their maid with them. Grabbing three extra dresses and one of the overlarge shirts she wore as nightclothes, she shoved them into the bag, then grabbed the only pair of shoes she owned and her one shawl for cold weather and added them as well. That done, she grabbed her comb and her hidden purse of money and added them as well. Looking about her room to make sure she hadn't missed anything, she buttoned up the bag and slung it over one shoulder, somewhat surprised to find out how little she owned that she really cared about. "Now what?"

"Now we get out of here," Emerald commented. Strolling casually over to the window, she flipped the lock open and pushed open the window. Straddling the sill, she swung both her legs over and hopped off, wings catching her as she plummeted and letting her drift slowly down to the soft, welcoming ground.

"I can't fly," Rella informed Ruby, in case the fairy might have forgotten.

Ruby smiled. "If you will hang on to my back, I believe I can fly us both down there safely."

Shoving aside doubts for now, she climbed onto Ruby's back, clinging to the woman's shoulders and being careful not to crush the delicate wings. Ruby perched onto the windowsill for a moment before leaping out.

They plummeted, falling through empty air. Rella stifled a shriek, the only thing that kept the scream from bursting from her throat the knowledge that it would wake Rhianna. Ruby's wings caught the air, and the two began to drift down ever so slowly, floating like a dandelion seed in the wind.

Rella let go as soon as Ruby's feet touched ground, stumbling and falling to the ground. "Oy," she commented, resisting the urge to retch. "I don't think I ever want to do that again."

Climbing to her feet, she wiped what dirt she could off her clothes, and then looked at the two fairies. "Okay, _now_ what?"

"Now we leave," Emerald instructed, and chose to follow her own advice, taking off towards the distant outline of the forest that surrounded Rhianna's castle. Ruby followed, slower than the younger fairy, leaving Rella to shrug and follow obediently.

"How long are we going to walk?" Rella asked Ruby once they were safely within the cover of the forest.

Ruby looked back at her over her shoulder. "Just long enough to find a decent spot for a campsite. Preferably pretty far out into the forest, so we won't be found too easily. I doubt Rhianna will bother sending search parties too far into the forest, if she sends them at all."

"What about magic? She'll be able to see us with that."

Ruby grinned. "She can try. When we find our campsite, we'll put a protective shield around the camp. Most protections she could break, but not that of a fairy. You don't need to fear while you're with us, Rella."

Half an hour later, as light was beginning to barely peek over the horizon to the east, they finall found a campsite both the fairies deemed suitable. The two had argued over several other spots while they were traveling, but this was the first one they both agreed on, so it was where they stopped. It was a large, cleared-out area in the woods, most likely where a hunter's cabin had stood at one point; whether it had or not, there was no sign of any habitation now, and there were the clear signs of deer prints within, so apparently it was safe from hunters now.

Rella was more than ready to stop by the time they finally did. Her feet were aching and blistered, unused as she was to walking this much; her shoulders were aching from the strain of carrying her pack, light as it might be. She was also sweating from the exertion of walking so far, and when the cool night breeze brushed against her, it cooled her sweat, making her cold but out of breath--not a very comfortable combination.

Once the three were safely inside the clearing, Ruby produced a pack from somewhere; wherever it came from, Rella was entirely certain it hadn't been there a few moments before. Emerald began to lay out a set of three bedrolls; Rella wondered for a moment how comfortable she would be sleeping with only a fairly thin layer of padding between herself and the ground, but then decided it couldn't be any less comfortable than her bed back at Rhianna's.

Ruby handed Emerald a lump of blankets. The other fairy accepted them and untangled them, spreading them out over the bedrolls, followed by three pillows. Once the beds were made, Rella didn't wait to see what the fairies did next; instead, she headed towards one of the bedrolls, half-falling into it. Her head hit the pillow, much softer than her improvised pillow at Rhianna's, and she pulled the soft, warm blanket around herself, and she was asleep.


	7. Out On Her Own

A/n: Ya know, I'm not real sure about the chapter divisions. When I originally wrote the story, I didn't divide it into chapters, I wrote it pretty much all as one piece, so now I'm going back through it and dividing it into chapters, which is kinda tough, especially since I'm not bothering at the moment to go back and rewrite to make the transition smooth. And I just now realized that almost every chapter ends with Rella going to sleep. Lol, oh well. I'll fix it later. -is a member of Procrastinator's Anonymous- 

Noon sunlight shone across her eyelids, waking her. Startled, she woke all at once and sat up immediately. _How in the world did I manage to sleep so late?! Rhianna is going to kill me--hopefully not literally!_

There was a moment of disorientation when she realized that she was sitting in the middle of a clearing in a forest, practically on the forest floor, half-covered by a blanket that certainly wasn't the one she had made herself. Shaking her head, she looked around in confusion; then she saw the two faeries talking to each other on the other side of the clearing, and memory came rushing back.

Ruby looked in her direction and, noticing she was awake, waved a hand at her, beckoning her to come over. With a sigh, she emerged from her bedroll, reluctant to leave behind the warm blanket, and stretched, wincing as her overused muscles from the night before began to ache.

"Finally, you're awake," Ruby teased. "There's a brush for your hair inside our pack--I noticed you only brought a comb. And if you want to bathe, there's a stream over there." She pointed a little to the right, into the woods.

Rella considered, but didn't relish the idea of a bath in stream water, sure to be freezing in the middle of autumn. She nodded to acknowledge that she'd heard the fairy, then grasped the faeries' pack and sat, placing it in her lap.

She began to rummage through the pack, wondering momentarily if the faeries would think she was being nosy. They didn't say anything, though, and she at last found the mentioned hairbrush. Setting the pack aside, she began to run the brush through her hair, reveling in the feel of actually being able to use a real brush on her hair, but wincing as she encountered numerous snarls.

Still brushing her hair, she looked at the two fairies. "So, are you two going to explain today what you didn't explain last night?"

"Certainly," Ruby replied, spreading her legs out into the center of the half-circle the three sat in. "What questions do you have?"

She took a deep breath, considering, then had to pause to work out a particulary difficult tangle with her fingers. "First of all, why are you two helping me?" she asked at last.

Ruby opened her mouth, but Emerald answered first. "We already told you," she stated impatiently. "You're of fairy blood, and everyone says there's something special about you."

She frowned, and put the brush aside, done with her unruly hair. "Fairy blood? _What_ fairy blood?"

"Your mother was a half-fairy," Ruby explained, "meaning your grandmother was a full fairy, but your grandfather was a human. So, I suppose you could say you're a quarter-fairy. Humans with fairy blood aren't at all common, but they do happen occasionally."

"And you've been showing some of the signs," Emerald added.

"Yes," Ruby agreed. "Your mother didn't, but you do. I assume that's why you were able to hear Emerald and I talking; a normal human wouldn't have been able to. I didn't think it would show up quite that strongly, but apparently it has."

"Signs?" Rella asked, still feeling confused. "What signs? And...so I'm a _fairy?_"

"Quarter-fairy," Emerald corrected, somewhat haughtily. "There's a big difference. You don't have wings, for one thing."

"As for what signs, there's plenty of them," Ruby continued. "There's your ears--they're just a little bit pointed at the tip. But that's the least of it. I'm not really sure right now what signs you've been showing, because I haven't really had time to examine you, but you'll probably be able to do your own magic eventually--with some training required, of course."

Rella stared. And stared some more. "Me?" she squeaked at last. "Do...magic? Are you _sure_ you have the right person? I'm no sorceress, not like Rhianna."

Ruby smiled. "We're very sure, dear. And yes, you could do magic. It wouldn't be like ours', though, or like Rhianna's. Yours' is a blending of fairy and human magic."

She was still sure they had to be mistaken, but decided not to press the matter. Shaking her head, she sighed and stared morosely at her feet. _Great. I've escaped from Rhianna, but I'm with a couple of faeries that claim I can do magic...this is too weird._

Then again...I can talk to horses. Is that _magic? But I mean, it's not like what Rhianna does. I can do it without trying, and I'm not exhausted after I do it or anything, like Rhianna is after she does a spell. But still..._

Shaking her head, she climbed to feet, pulling a clean gown from her pack and pulling it over her head. All this talk of fairies and magic was too much this early in the morning. _Or this late. Whatever._

"So," she asked, turning back to the fairies, "what's the catch? What do I have to do to get you guys to keep helping me?"

"There isn't one," Emerald said impatiently.

"Yeah, but isn't it just a little _too_ convenient that I have to travel with you guys now? If I don't, I won't have your magic to protect me from Rhianna. And I can't go back--that would be entirely stupid at this point."

Ruby shook her head. "We're not going to make you do anything you don't want to do, I promise. We're just trying to help you."

Rella shrugged. She still wasn't sure she trusted them; then again, she really _wanted_ to trust them. _Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, _she reminded herself.

Looking at the other two, she asked, "So what are we going to do now that we're away from Rhianna's?"

"That, my dear, is up to you," Ruby said, getting to her feet and dusting off her bare knees. "If you wish, you could go to the Prince's ball; that was what we had intended when we rescued you. But if you would rather not go...well, we won't force you."

Rella snorted. "I already told you how I feel about that. With my luck, either the Prince would want to marry me and I'd hate him, or I'd go and fall madly in love with the Prince and he wouldn't even look at me. Either way, I'd really rather not go."

"Well then," said Emerald, also getting to her feet. "If you're not going to the ball, then it's up to you to choose--wherever you want to go is fine with us. Right, Ruby?" she added, looking at her companion.

Ruby nodded, but still seemed disappointed at Rella's reaction to her suggestion. Rella, considering her options, shrugged. "Um...I dunno. I've thought about escaping plenty of times, but I never really thought about what I'd do once I was free." Her stomach growled, reminding her forcefully that she hadn't eaten since she had escaped Rhianna's. "I do know that I'm starving, though."

Ruby, digging in her pack, emerged with a purse that rattled as it was moved. "I believe we can manage to find our way into town and get ourselves some breakfast."

Rella, edging along the crowd in the city streets, felt that her stomach was actually entirely full for the first time in years. The meal they had bought with the fairies' large amount of coin seemed incredibly large to Rella, although the fairies' hadn't seemed to think it so. Emerald had left just after they ate, leaving Ruby and Rella to their own devices; so, as it was time for the Autumn Faire in the town of Karak, the two had gone off to see the sights.

Rella had at first wondered how the two fairies would manage to pass among humans without being noticed. Her question had been quickly answered as the two performed some sort of magic they called an illusion, causing them to seem like a normal brunette and blonde, without wings, dressed in ordinary, everyday shirt and breeches. Rella had found that when she looked at the two of them out of the corner of her eyesight, she could vaguely see the outline of the wings on their backs, but had decided not to mention it; their talk earlier of her having magic had been unnerving enough.

Their first stop was to watch one of the many street magicians performing on street corners today, as Ruby explained to Rella how each of the man's so-called "magic" could be performed easily enough with sleight-of-hand and a few special props.

Next, they made a brief stop by some of the Hakarian warrior tribe demonstrating their skills, as Rella bought a small cinnamon pastry from one of the street vendors. After that, Rella indulged herself a little with the fairies' large amount of coin, purchasing a new black shirt and white shirt, and, upon urging from Ruby, a pair of tan breeches and some new, shiny black boots.

Their next stop was to watch some of the famous Likarian trick riders, showing their skills in a large arena at the end of the street. By the time the demonstration was done, Rella was left in awe, wondering how in the world the Likarian's could manage to be so agile on the ground, much less on horseback.

After some more browsing and sight-seeing, Rella's stomach demanded lunch, and so the two stopped in a small restaurant and treated themselves to another meal, again, much larger than what Rella was accustomed to. The sun was setting below the horizon in the west by the time Ruby and Rella finally returned to their campsite, exhausted from their long day.

Not too long after the two returned, Emerald returned as well, leading along a large chestnut pony, saddled and bridled, along with filled saddlebags. Blinking, Rella looked towards Emerald for an explanation.

Emerald, seeing the confused look in Rella's eyes, grinned. "Assuming you don't want to stick around town, I figured we'd have to be traveling somewhere soon, so I went ahead and got the travel necessities." Unloading the horse of its' bags, she sat and began to rummage through them.

"Why just the one horse for all three of us?" she asked, finishing the pastry she had bought earlier and wiping the crumbs from her fingers.

"The horse is for you," Emerald explained. "Fairies don't tire as fast as you humans, and we're faster and our feet aren't as tender, so we can travel on our own two feet. I got a couple of more decent outfits for you"--with this she pulled out from the bags three brand new outfits, similar to those Rella had bought earlier--"and a few other things--a canteen, soap, some food, you get the picture. We should be set for a week or two with this."

Getting to her feet, Rella walked over to the horse. The kindly young pony--a mare, Rella saw now--butted her in the chest, whickering softly in greeting. Patting the horse's nose, Rella giggled. "Hello," she told the horse quietly. "You _are _a beauty."

Thank you, the mare replied modestly. You should see some of the other horses where I come from. They are much prettier, and certainly a lot taller, where I come from. Sometimes they like to bully me.

"They oughta be ashamed," Rella remarked, scratching an itchy spot on the mare's coat. "You're a sweetie, and I can't see why they'd want to be mean to you. What's your name, anyway?"

The twolegs back home always called me Honey. I have gotten used to that, so I suppose it is my name.

"Honey? That's a sweet name," Rella said, and giggled. "I'm Rella. It's certainly a pleasure to meet you, miss Honey."

It's pleasure to meet you as well, the mare stated politely. How is it you can talk to me, though? You're the only twolegs I've ever known who can talk to horses. Although, I suppose you are a strange bunch--it nearly scared the life out of me when that blonde friend of yours suddenly turned into a tall person with wings. Oh, and your friends with the wings are staring at you.

Turning, she saw that Honey was right--they were staring at her. Blushing, she barely noticed when Honey head-butted her again, leaving a streak of green slime down her shirt, and then returned to grazing.

"How long have you been able to talk to horses?" Ruby asked, as calmly as if she discovered people with these strange talents everyday. _And maybe she does,_ Rella thought dryly. _After all, she is a fairy._

"Well, I'm not sure, but I found out when I first came to Rhianna," Rella said, linking her hands behind her back. "I...never thought it was all that special."

"It must be a result of your fairy blood," Emerald said, shaking her head. "Any more strange talents you'd like to tell us about?"

Rella blushed again. "Well, I can talk to birds too. And...when you two had on your illusions, if I sort of looked at you sideways, I could see the outline of your wings."

"This requires thought," Ruby remarked. "However, I believe a good night's sleep first may help, because I don't know about you two, but _I _am quite exhausted." That said, she climbed into her bedroll, and promptly appeared to fall fast asleep.

Shaking her head, Rella followed into her own bedroll, leaving Emerald to take care of Honey for the night. She curled up in the warm blanket and soft pillow, and was asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.


	8. Bard Bardic North

A/n: Yay! At last a relatively long chapter…that still ends with Rella going to sleep. Crappers. Lol, oh well.

She was awakened the next morning by warm sunlight and soft voices on the other side of the campsite. Sitting up, she yawned and rubbed her eyes.

The two fairies sat on the other side of the clearing, talking to each other quietly. Ruby, looking up, realized Rella was awake and waved. Rolling out of her bedroll, Rella climbed to her feet and dug in her packs for clothes.

"You need to decide what you are going to do with yourself now that you're free of Rhianna," Emerald told her, coming over. "We can go anywhere you like, or we could stick around here; I don't recommend that, though, since somebody could recognize you and report you to Rhianna."

Shrugging, Rella pulled on one of the new outfits she had bought yesterday, and began to lace up her brand new, still shiny black boots. "Um," she said thoughtfully as she began to coax a brush through her tangled hair. "I don't know, really."

_I would almost like to go back home, find my father...But who knows where he is, or even if he's still alive? We were always traveling, after all, so there's no way to know where he could be..._

Emerald walked over to her bag and pulled out something, a single scroll of parchment. Walking back over to Rella, she sat down and spread it out across her lap, revealing it to be a map of the entire Liarian continent. "We can pretty much go anywhere you like," she said, gesturing at the map. "We could go down here to Hakar, where they have all those dedicated warrior-types, up north to Likaria, with their trick riders and mages that can talk to horses, or any number of other equally interesting places, really. It's up to you, Rella. You can see the world."

Placing the brush back in her pack, she buttoned it back up and shook her head. "Where would _you _suggest I go? I honestly don't know what to do with myself." Sighing, she pulled her knees up to her chest and propped her chin on her knees.

"Um, I dunno," Emerald stated helpfully. "I'd kind of like to go to Likaria, myself, but it's up to you. I always have wanted to see those mages up there. But you can decide."

Rella shrugged, sighing, and closed her eyes. _You can do anything you like,_ a part of her whispered. _Go anywhere you want, do anything you want...you can go anywhere in the world you want to...the castles of Ergash...the plains of Hakar...the deserts of Sarai...the horses of Likaria...anything, anywhere...you can see the world..._

Opening her eyes, she looked towards Emerald, who was watching her with a strange expression on her face. "I've decided," she announced. "We're going to Likaria." Nodding, Emerald rolled up the map and placed it back into their pack, as Rella got to her feet and stretched.

They traveled for nearly an hour without incident, and the sun was high in the sky when they stopped to rest, tethering Honey to a tree nearby and pausing for a meal--Emerald, who Rella had discovered not only owned a longbow but was quite proficient with it, had bagged them three small rabbits, enough of a lunch for all three of them. After eating, they continued on their way, and it was almost another half an hour before they came across any other disturbances.

It was then that they heard the sound of a horse's hooves on the forest floor up ahead, the sound of twigs breaking and leaves rustling--whoever it was, they weren't doing a very good job of concealing their presence. Emerald had looked back at the other two, holding a finger to her lips for silence--the two nodded, and she whispered, "Could be one of Rhianna's spies." Drawing an arrow from her quiver, Emerald put it to her bow and alighted up a tree with remarkable speed, branches concealing her from sight.

"Keep going," Ruby told her, barely audible. "If they're an enemy, we'll protect you." With that, Ruby herself alighted up a tree as well, and was, as far as Rella could see, gone.

Suppressing misgivings, Rella continued. It was at that moment that Honey chose to raise her head and call out to the other horse she heard in the woods, her neigh echoing throughout the forest.

"Come on, Cloud, keep going," Rella heard a man's voice say. "I know you're a coward, but you really shouldn't be scared just because another horse tries to say hello--" Darting under an overhanging branch, the speaker came into sight. Seeing her, he checked his horse's slow walk, and swept her a bow, an odd contortion in a man on horseback. "Greetings, milady."

Getting a closer look at his face, she frowned. "Wait a minute...I recognize you!"

Peering down at her, a look of recognition lit up his face. "You were the Bard with Rhianna," Rella told him, at the exact same moment that he said, "You were the maid with the beautiful voice."

Blushing, feeling rather awkward that she had made enough of an impression on him for him to remember her voice, she shrugged. "I'm not _that _good," she protested.

He merely raised an eyebrow at her. "_I _certainly thought you were. But, no matter. Bard Bardic North, at your service." He swept her another bow.

She blinked. "Bard...Bardic?"

He grinned sheepishly. "I think my parents knew all along I was going to be a Bard, so they decided to give me a head start with my name."

She couldn't help but grin back; his smile was infectious. "I'm Rella," she told him, doing her best to curtsy, although she wobbled and nearly fell over. "I am--_was_--Rhianna's scullery maid."

She heard a sigh from the treetops above, and Emerald descended from her position in the tree branches, picking leaves out of her hair. "I take it you know this person, Rella?" she asked, looking from the Bard to Rella and back.

"Well...not really," she explained, hearing Ruby descend behind her. "I mean, he came to Rhianna's castle a while back and played. He heard me singing and said I had a pretty voice, but I don't really know him. I mean, this is the first time we've really met."

The man was busy staring at Rella's companions, brown eyes wide in his slightly tanned face. "If you would mind introducing me to your companions?" he asked faintly.

"Oh, sorry," Rella said, turning back in his direction. "Um, this is Emerald, and this is Ruby. They're...well...um...they're fairies."

"I could have guessed that," he said, and cleared his throat. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mistresses Emerald and Ruby, and something of a surprise as well. I had, of course, heard tales of fairies, but I had never thought them to be true...Well, if you don't mind, I believe I must stay for a while," he said, dismounting. "I should certainly like to hear the tale of how Rhianna's scullery maid ended up in the company of not one, but two fairies--that is, of course, if you three lovely ladies don't mind extending your hospitality towards a lonely traveling Bard such as myself."

Rella looked towards Emerald and Ruby, wondering how they felt about this charming man. Emerald met her eyes and shrugged. Looking back towards the Bard, she nodded. "None of us mind, sir. We were just about to stop for a rest and a meal anyway, and we'd be pleased if you'd join us."

"And I'd be pleased to join you," the Bard replied, leading his small dapple-gray pony off the well-traveled forest road. "But I'm not 'sir.' Just Bardic."

Rella shook her head, feeling a little bit bewildered; she wasn't at all used to important people like Bards telling her to call them by their first name. "If you say so, sir. Um...Bardic."

The four were quickly settled around a small campfire built by the two fairies. Bardic was, as he had said, very interested in how a scullery maid had ended up travelling with the woods with two fairies, and, surprisingly enough, Rella found herself telling him the entire story, including the fact that she had run away from Rhianna and the sorceress was no doubt looking for her now. Emerald had given her a surprised look when she had included that part; after all, how were they to know? The charming bard could very well have been sent by Rhianna to look for her. But for some reason that Rella wasn't sure of, she trusted Bardic.

They shared the rabbits Emerald had caught and the biscuits produced from Ruby's pack among the four of them, and Rella was again quite full, something she still wasn't used to. After the meal, the faeries sat off to one side, talking to each other in hushed voices, and the Bard stretched out on the ground, leaning against his dapple-gray pony, whom Rella had learned was named Cloud.

"Quite an interesting story you have," he commented. "Might make a good song someday."

Rella snorted and raised an eyebrow. "A song about Rhianna's scullery maid running away in the forest with two fairies and meeting a Bard? Doesn't sound so spectacular to me."

He shrugged, then grinned. "We could always embellish the tale a bit and say that after you ran away you went to the Prince's ball and married him, and then the two of you lived happily ever after."

Rella couldn't help but grin back. "It would be more realistic to say that I went to the Prince's ball and he didn't even look at me and married some prettier and more deserving maiden."

Bardic opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted when the fairies decided to rejoin the two humans. Ruby walked over to the campfire and sat down, but Emerald strolled over to Rella and casually stood beside her. "So where might you be going to, sir Bard?" the blonde faerie asked.

"We happen to be going to Likaria," Ruby added. Emerald shot her an undecipherable glance, but said nothing, and Ruby appeared not to see. "And what of you?"

The Bard raised an eyebrow. "Likaria? Really? What an extremely interesting coincidence! That just happens to be exactly the same place _I_ was traveling to. I'm scheduled for a visit to the home of one of their horse-mages, you see."

Emerald smiled. "Knowing Bards, more likely you weren't going any such place and have just now decided to go there, in hopes that you will travel with us, learn more of our story, and turn it into a ballad."

Bardic shrugged unabashedly. "Maybe yes, maybe no. You'll never know unless I tell you, now will you?" He gave Emerald an innocently charming smile. "But as it is, I just happened to be thinking, since we _are _going to the same place, after all--"

"--and there's safety in numbers--" Ruby put in.

"--you were wondering if you could come with us," Emerald finished, and grinned. "I suppose it's up to Rella."

Rella blinked. "Me? Why me?"

"Because you've sort of become the leader of this little group," Ruby explained.

She blinked again, taken by surprise. "Me? Leader?"

"Haven't you?" Emerald asked. "You're the reason me'n Ruby are here. You're the one that made the decision to go to Likaria, and not to go to the Prince's ball."

She shrugged half-heartedly. "Well...I dunno." Looking up, she realized everyone was waiting on her to come to a decision. "Um...I guess he can come along?"

"Is that a yes or a no?" Ruby asked, looking like she was holding back laughter.

"You sound so enthusiastic," Bardic put in dryly.

Rella blinked once more, then laughed. "All right then. Sir Bard Bardic North"--she resisted the urge to giggle at the tongue-twister of a name--"I would be very honored if you would accompany myself and my companions on our journey to Likaria. Happy now?"

He grinned back at her. "I most certainly am, and I most certainly will."

The now-rather-large group of four ended up staying in the same campsite for the rest of the day, as the sun was already almost below the horizon when they had stopped at first. Later on, for dinner, Bardic proved to be proficient with a longbow as well; he caught a whopping five small plains-rabbits, more than enough for dinner for four, supplemented with the food from Ruby's pack. The leftovers they packed into Emerald's pack, and then the four stretched out onto their own separated bedrolls. Rella stretched out onto the pallet, which was incredibly soft to her, and was instantly asleep.

The next morning the four set out, and over the next few days travel became something of a routine--get up, eat breakfast, pack up Honey and Cloud, and leave. Rella was never too sure of the direction in which they were traveling, but Ruby and Emerald would occasionally pull out their map and confer briefly with each other, and the fairies were the ones that decided which way to go when they came to forks or other decision-points, so Rella assumed they were guiding the group correctly.

By the time a week had passed, Rella was much used to the work of travelling. The aches and pains from stretching the normally unused muscles used in riding had faded, and the swollen big toe she had gotten after Cloud had accidentally stepped on her foot--with many apologies afterwards--had healed. The days had faded into a sort of endless routine, and although they weren't even outside the borders of the kingdom of Valava, Rella was becoming bored.

Bardic had proved to be both a helpful and pleasurable travelling companion. He and Emerald single-handedly caught most of their meals, and Bardic provided entertainment at their campsites with his harp and splendid musical voice. Rella couldn't help but wonder if all Bards were as good at what they did as Bardic was, or if he was the exception. She had asked him once, but he had simply stated modestly that there were plenty of Master Bards in the Bardic Halls scattered around the continent that were much better than he was. She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or just being modest, so she remained silent.

They had been travelling for almost two weeks and were drawing closer to the Valavian border when the fairies brought up the matter of the Prince's ball again.

They had just finished the dinner Emerald had caught, and were sitting comfortably around the slowly flickering campfire. Rella had just, out of curiosity, asked Bardic if nobility was required to become a Bard. She wasn't sure why she wanted to know; she already felt awkward enough sometimes calling a Bard by his first name, without nobility being added to it.

But he had just shaken his head. "No, not at all," he replied. "The Bardic Halls let pretty much anyone with a gift join. After all, my parents were just farmers. I never even really thought I would be a Bard, even though I had a head start with my name, but one day I was sitting outside on the fence, shirking my chores, playing my little harp I had bought with my own money, and a real Bard happened to be riding by, heard me, and ended up toting me off to the nearest Hall." He grinned. "It's been a few years since then, though. As it is, I'm still just a Journeyman. Not anywhere near a Master, probably never will be. I'm just a plain old Bard, when it comes right down to it."

Rella didn't think there was any such thing as a plain old Bard, but didn't say as much. Instead, Bardic continued, "Now that you've heard practically my entire life story, what about you? How did you end up becoming Rhianna's scullery maid? Assuming, of course, that you weren't born there."

She shook her head. "No, my father was a merchant. My mother died giving birth to me, so I never knew her. We were always travelling all over the place, which I didn't really like, because I never got to stay in one place long enough to make any real friends. But then one day when I was ten, Rhianna came and kidnapped me." She didn't feel like confiding her suspicions of being sold right now, even to the fairies and Bardic; looking at the other three, she suddenly realized that Emerald, Ruby, and Bardic were the only real friends she had had her entire life, besides Cook and the horses.

"Your turn," Bardic had said, looking at Emerald with a grin.

Emerald had just shrugged. "Not really much to tell. We're just a couple of ordinary fairies." Then she had laughed at herself. "So, Rella," she said, changing the subject, "what are you planning on doing when we get to Likaria?"

"Um..." She shrugged. "I...don't know. Wait a second, don't they have mages that talk to horses there? You said I could talk to horses because of my fairy blood. Do their mages have fairy blood too?"

"Sort of," Ruby explained helpfully. "The first few horse-mages were half-fairies with just that one gift, and after them, the gene bred true most of the time. So yes, they do have fairy blood, but it's several centuries back. But their abilities are different from yours, anyway. They can do more than just talk to horses."

"You know," Emerald said thoughtfully, subtly changing the subject once more, "if you really don't know what you're going to do in Likaria, maybe you should go to the Prince's ball instead for now. After all, it's something to do."

"Why don't you go to the ball?" Bardic asked interestedly.

Rella sighed. "Because if I go, knowing my luck, either I'll fall madly in love with the Prince and he won't even look at me all night, or the Prince will want to marry me and I'll hate his guts. Besides, I know Lianne and Anastasia will be there. They'll recognize me and tell Rhianna."

Looking around, she suddenly got the distinct feeling that everyone sitting around the campfire besides herself wanted her to go to the Prince's ball, and no matter how long she protested that she didn't want to go, in the end, she would just be delaying the inevitable. She shook herself, trying to get rid of the odd feeling, but it didn't go away. Looking up, she realized the two fairies were watching her curiously.

"I still think you should go," Emerald said. "After all, every eligible maiden in the kingdom is supposed to go, and you're certainly an eligible maiden, and you're still in the kingdom."

"But I won't be for long," she informed the fairy, rising. "And I _don't _want to go, so if you'll stop bothering me about that stupid ball, could we please go to sleep now?"

That night, she stayed awake, thinking. _Emerald does sort of have a point. After all, I really don't know what I want to do once we get to Likaria, and going to the ball would give me something to do in the meantime. And I know the fairies want me to go to the ball, at least. Maybe I should go, just to make them happy. After all, I know the Prince won't even look at me. I'm just a scullery maid._

She turned over, yawning. _But then again, Lianne and Anastasia might see me, and if they did I know they'd recognize me. Ruby and Emerald said they'd protect me, but how could they keep Lianne and Anastasia from seeing me as who I was?_

Oh, well. If they want me to go to the ball, they probably already have it all figured out. Maybe I should ask them what they were planning...

Turning again, she realized that her mind was already made up to go to the ball and get it over with. Sighing, she yawned once more, turned on her stomach, and fell asleep.


	9. Lessons and Departure

In the morning, the fairies were delighted to find that she had decided to go to the ball. They still had four weeks until the date of the ball, and the fairies said that was more than enough time to travel back to the capital, buy a dress, and do whatever else was needed to get Rella ready--she wasn't really sure what was required, but was sure the fairies could take care of it. She had been somewhat worried that Bardic might choose to go on to Likaria alone, but he had no objections to the change of plans and showed no sign of leaving the group as they turned around, so her worries faded. When asked about his scheduled visit, he simply said that it could wait long enough to accompany them back to the capital, and grinned.

It took them almost another two weeks to travel back to the capital, going back over familiar territory this time. They set up a campsite in the forest just outside the city; Emerald had wanted to get a room at an inn, but the other three had insisted upon staying out of sight, pointing out that if they stayed at an inn, it would be all too easy for Rhianna to find them. Emerald grumbled for a while, but couldn't help but agree with them, and in the end, she was the one that found their eventual campsite.

Rella had pointed out along the way back that she would be assumed to be nobility when she went to the ball, and she had absolutely no idea how to act like a noble lady. The fairies had acknowledged that, but said that they would teach her. Rella had been quite dubious of their claim that they could teach her all she needed to know in only two weeks, but had remained silent.

Once they had finally set up their campsite was when her lessons began.

"Etiquette comes first," Ruby had informed them, and so it was. First she had to learn how to curtsy, which was quite a pain; the first time she tried, she wobbled until she nearly fell over, and was informed by Emerald that she was curtsying too low for a Lord or Baron, but not anywhere near low enough for addressing a Prince. Rella had sighed and continued practicing. By the end of the day, she still hadn't any idea about how low to curtsy to various forms of nobility, but could at least curtsy without wobbling, at least most of the time.

After she was thoroughly tired of curtsying, Emerald had sat her down on a nearby tree stump and educated her in the various forms of address for nobility. Rella's name, the fairy had solemnly informed her, would be Lady Rellana tir Lorea. Rella had asked how in the world they would prove that she was who she claimed, but Emerald had simply told her not to worry about it, which was a most unsatisfactory answer. Princes and Princesses were addressed as "Your Highness," Kings and Queens were addressed as "Your Majesty." Dukes were "Your Grace," Judges were "Your Honor," Knights were "Sir," Lords were "Milord," Ladies were "Milady," and Barons and Baronesses were "Your Nobility." Rella didn't see how in the world she was supposed to learn all that in two weeks, but Emerald assured her she would be fine.

The next day, Emerald quizzed her on the various forms of address. Rella was surprised to find she remembered most of them, but then Emerald made her practice the various forms of curtsy. Curtsies to royalty were the lowest, to Lords and Ladies the highest. After Emerald seemed satisfied with her curtsies, Ruby made her memorize the various ranks, in order of authority; Lords and Ladies, Barons and Baronesses, Dukes and Duchesses, Judges, Knights, Princes and Princesses, and then Kings and Queens. That one wasn't really too hard; after all, they matched up to the forms of curtsy, from lowest to highest, and Rella found that remembering one made her remember the other.

The next day, she was on her toes as soon as the sun rose, going over the forms of address and curtsies again. Then the two fairies made her practice polite conversation with various forms of nobility, with a little help from Bardic. Rella was surprised to find how much of the past few day's lessons she remembered, despite her worries.

After dinner, Bardic entertained them with his harp playing, and, after much persuasion, managed to talk Rella into singing a duet with him. The fairies listened, entranced, as the two together sang the only song both of them knew, a simple country love song, telling of the forbidden love between a stable boy and a noble lady, accompanied by Bardic's soft playing on the harp. After they were finished, all was silent; no one dared speak, lest they break the mood.

It was also then that the fairies discovered Rella had no idea how to perform any of the formal dances performed at such balls. Rella was somewhat embarrassed she hadn't mentioned it earlier, but the fairies shrugged it off, saying that they still had a week and a half left, and that would be more than enough time.

The next morning, after being reassured that Rella had her previous lessons memorized--she could curtsy perfectly every time now, and was clear on the forms of address for the most part--her dancing lessons began.

"The first dance you should learn is the waltz," Ruby had said, and so she did. Bardic had volunteered to help out, but despite the coaching of the Bard and the two fairies, all she did at first was step on Bardic's toes and trip over her own two feet.

"No, no, no, you're trying to lead again," Bardic admonished her. "You have to follow, and let me lead--yes, like that. Only now you're stepping on my toes again."

She blushed. "I'm not any good at this," she protested. "I really don't see how you three think I'm going to survive the ball."

Bardic shook his head. "You're better than I was when _I_ first starting learning all these formal dances. I lose track of how many times I tripped over my own feet and stepped on my partner's toes, and I didn't even start to get the hang of it for about a month. You'll be fine."

Rella doubted that, but didn't say as much. Shrugging, she and Bardic took up their places again, his arm lightly encircling her waist--sort of awkward, but not altogether unpleasant. Ruby played a waltz on the fairy flute they had only recently discovered she possessed, and they began twirling again. Rella was actually starting to get the hang of it; she managed not to try to lead that time, and only stepped on his toes once.

By the time the day was over, she had mostly learned the waltz, but was exhausted. Falling over into her bedroll, she was asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The fairies woke her not too long after the sun rose, and made her go over the curtsies and forms of address again. Rella was sure by now she had it all memorized, but didn't voice her irritation, and instead just obediently went through the lists of curtsies and names.

They set about learning a new dance that day. "The Cariare," Emerald said. "It's a local dance, and one of the Prince's favorites. You're bound to use it at one time during the ball."

The Cariare proved to be something of a complicated pattern dance, hard to learn but easy to perform once you knew the right steps and the right timing. The dancers moved in groups of four and two, so it was easy enough to practice with the two humans and two fairies. Rella had to stifle a giggle when Emerald solemnly asked Ruby if she wanted to be the man or the woman this time.

The Cariare was also quite simple once Rella knew the steps, but the fairies made the four of them go through it all until they were both satisfied that she could go over them in her sleep. Then they made her go over the waltz again, just to be sure she hadn't forgotten what she had learned yesterday. Twirling slowly around the flickering firelight, drifting slowly to the lilting music of Ruby's faerie flute, she felt somehow quite at home, and peacefully drowsy as she spun in Bardic's arms.

The fairies and Bardic set about teaching her several other dances over the next few days, and Rella was thoroughly exhausted at the end of each day. "How many dances are there going to be in one ball?" she had asked the fairies once.

"Certainly not all that we're teaching you, but we don't know which ones will be used," Ruby replied. "Better that you know them all then only know the more common ones, have someone call for a dance not so often used, and have you be proven not to be a noble."

They still had a week to go until the big day of the ball when she finally got a break from her dancing lessons. Emerald dragged her into town, taking her to the same dressmaker Lianne and Anastasia had gotten their dresses done at. Emerald had sat her down in the chair and told her to wait. Looking around, Rella was amazed at the pure quantity of fabrics hanging around; everything from expensive silk and velvet to plain cotton and linen lay on the store shelves.

It wasn't long before Emerald came back, with the dressmaker in tow. The dressmaker had looked at Rella, and then back at Emerald. "She the one the dress is for?"

Emerald nodded. "She's the one. I was thinking, something that wouldn't clash with auburn hair, but maybe something that would bring out the green in her eyes--she has beautiful eyes, don't you think? Something soft, but comfortable--I was thinking maybe silk or velvet. Oh, and please, none of those gigantic skirts everyone is wearing now, they make everyone look horrible. Something that would make her look...oh...stunning."

The dressmaker had been looking her over, nodding and making approving noises at things the disguised fairy said. Now she nodded. "Come along with me, dear," she beckoned. "I've just got to take up your measurements real quick."

The dressmaker had whipped a measuring tape around her bust, waist, and hips so quickly it had been nothing but a blur, and had then left, coming back with several fabric samples. Murmuring to herself, she held each up to Rella's side, sometimes discarding it immediately, other times quirking her mouth from side to side as she thought.

At last the dressmaker was done, and had led Rella back out to the main room. She had a brief discussion with Emerald, in which the dressmaker agreed to have the dress done in time for the ball; at last the dressmaker named a price, a sum so high it made Rella gasp, but Emerald simply agreed nonchalantly and paid the woman.

"Isn't that an awful lot of money for one dress?" Rella had asked Emerald as the two had left.

"No, not really," the fairy had replied. "A lot of the nobles pay much more."

Emerald had then gone off on her own, leaving Rella to make her way back to the campsite. Bardic and Ruby had caught and fixed lunch while she was gone; Rella fell to with a will, surprised to find how hungry she was, although not too long ago she would have been still full from their large breakfast. By the time she was through eating, Emerald had returned, carrying a shopping bag mysteriously full, and fell to her own lunch eagerly.

The day of the ball grew ever nearer; each day, the fairies made her go over her curtsies, forms of address, and dances. By the day before the ball, she knew her lessons well enough so that she was actually thinking this masquerading as a noble just might work. And then at last the big day came.

Rella, finishing up her lunch, wiped her hands on her skirt and took a thirsty gulp from their canteen. A trickle of water dribbled down onto her shirt; scowling, she wiped at it with her hand, but it left a very visible streak. _Good thing I'm not wearing these clothes to the ball,_ she thought.

The sound of soft, barely audible footsteps alerted the other three to Emerald's approach. Bearing a large package wrapped in brown paper under one arm, she grinned and lay the package next to a tree. "I have your dress," she greeted Rella. "You'll die when you see it. You're going to look simply stunning."

Rella certainly didn't think she would ever look stunning, no matter how pretty a dress she had on, but said nothing. Instead, she rose, wiping her hands on her skirt once more, heedless of the dirt left on the dark fabric. "I just have one question: how am I going to get to the ball?"

Ruby and Emerald exchanged glances. "You'll see," Emerald said, grinning. "For now, come with me." Grabbing the package and the mysterious shopping bag she had come back with a week ago, she strolled off into the woods without waiting to see if Rella would follow. Rella, shaking her head, obediently followed. After the fairy's quiet passage, she made so much racket it seemed as though anyone with half an ear would be able to hear her.

Emerald sat in a pint-sized clearing, barely big enough for the two of them to fit in it and surrounded by trees on all sides, but filled with moss in the middle. She sat tailor-style in the center, cutting loose the ties on the brown package with her knife. Last tie broken, she unwrapped the paper, shook out Rella's dress, and held it up for her to see.

It wasn't just _a_ dress, Rella thought; it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. Light blue and white lace, it had short sleeves, and a skirt that was full without seeming ridiculous. Also in the package were two white gloves intended to go almost up to the elbow, and a petite pair of blue slippers.

Gaping, Rella shook herself. "That can't...I mean...that's _my_ dress?"

Emerald grinned. "It certainly is, Rella dear. Go ahead, change into it."

Shaking her head, Rella obediently stripped. Taking the dress from Emerald's grasp, she slipped it over her head and fit her arms through the sleeves. Turning, she let the fairy button it up the back. Sighing, she shook her head. "It's too tight."

"It just feels that way now," Emerald said. "You get used to it really quickly."

Shrugging, Rella accepted the gloves, pulling them on up to her elbows and stretching her fingers out into them. Slipping her feet into the shoes, she blinked; they feet her own small feet perfectly. The heel was slightly raised, enough to look elegant, but not enough of a raise to make her lose her balance, unused as she was to walking on high heels.

She spun around, admiring the way the blue and white skirts billowed out around her. "I feel odd."

"It's because we're not done yet," Emerald said, pulling a hairbrush out from her pack. "Come here."

Obediently, Rella came over to the fairy. Standing, Emerald began to brush Rella's hair, then did some odd twisting and pulling thing with it, securing it with some sort of hairband. Rella tried to blow the loose strands of hair out of her face, but the fairy reprimanded her, so she want back to being still. Taking a finger, Emerald took the loose strands and curled them, letting them hang loosely to either side of her face.

It seemed hours before Emerald was done making her up, and yet at the same time, it was over remarkable fast. Taking a small, handheld mirror out of her pack, Emerald somehow unfolded it so that it was full size, and held it in front of Rella, so that she could see how she looked.

Rella stared, mouth hanging open. Instead of the plain old Rella the scullery maid she was used to seeing when she looked in the mirror, a beautiful lady was staring back at her. The dress made her look far more beautiful than she knew herself to be, somehow accenting her modest curves and making them seem not quite so modest. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, with two little curls hanging down on either side of her face. Her face, with its wide, shocked green eyes shining in the light as the moon began to rise, added to the overall picture and somehow made her seem quite beautiful.

No longer was she Rella the scullery maid. The reflection staring back at her in shock and surprise was that of the Lady Rellana tir Lorea.

Emerald chuckled. "Surprised?"

Rella could only stare speechlessly. Grinning, Emerald folded the mirror back up and stuffed it back into her pack. Slinging the pack over her shoulder, she solemnly informed the other girl, "You can close your mouth now." That said, she strolled off towards the campsite, leaving Rella with nothing to do but follow.

Emerald re-entered the campsite, grinning. "Presenting...the Lady Rellana tir Lorea," the fairy stated, and swept aside grandly, leaving the still-surprised Rella to enter in her wake.

Bardic gaped, looking entirely as stunned as Rella herself had a moment ago. Ruby seemed pleasantly surprised as well. "My, my," the brunette fairy teased gently. "You do make a very nice noble Lady, don't you?"

"I feel silly," Rella informed her. "Like...like a little girl playing dress-up."

"You're certainly being silly," Emerald told her. "She looks lovely. Doesn't she, Bardic?" she added with a grin.

"Very lovely," Bardic said softly, still staring at her. Something in his voice made her look up at him, and the way he was looking at her made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, but yet at the same time, sent a pleasurable shiver of excitement down her spine.

"And now, it's time for me to work my magic," Ruby sighed, sitting cross-legged in front of the fire.

"Don't sound so thrilled," Emerald told her tartly. "It's not that hard to conjure up a coach and some horses."

Ruby merely closed her eyes and didn't respond. By the time Rella could actually look away from Bardic and the odd, new way in which he continued to watch her, there stood in the empty side of the large clearing, a large white coach, and four snowy white horses to pull it.

Rella blinked. Despite knowing that the fairies could work magic, the most impressive thing she had ever seen was them changing themselves to look like normal humans. Never before had she seen them honestly conjure something up out of thin air.

Ruby, seeing the way she was staring at the coach and horses, grinned. "It's not as amazing as it looks. The coach is really a pumpkin a farmer was growing nearby, and the horses are really field mice. It's not really any different from us putting illusions on ourselves, to look like normal humans."

"And I," Emerald put in, "will be your driver." While Ruby was talking, she had spelled herself to look normal, only this time, dressed in blue and white livery, with a crest of a unicorn's head and neck on the front of her coat. Climbing nimbly onto the driver's seat of the coach, she grinned and took the reins. "Ready whenever you are, milady," she informed Rella.

Rella took a deep breath and looked at Ruby and Bardic--Bardic, who, while he wasn't still staring at her, still had that odd look in his eyes, the look that made her uncomfortable and yet was pleasurable at the same time. _Are you ready to go through with this? _she asked herself. _Yes,_ part of her said bravely, while at the same time another part of her screamed, _No! You don't want to go through with this! Why marry the Prince? You don't even know him!_

She cut that thought off before it was really through, and took a deep breath. Looking at Ruby and Bardic, she nodded. "Well...good-bye. I'll see you when the ball's over."

Ruby, nodding, gave her a quick hug, careful not to rumple her dress, and gave a whispered "Good luck." Bardic just nodded, oddly silent.

Taking another deep breath, she climbed into the coach, feeling entirely out of place. Emerald grinned at her as she settled uneasily into the cushioned seat. She heard the faerie cluck to the horses, and they were off, cantering off into the twilight, an uneasy Rella nervously gripping the edge of her seat.

A/n: Ohmigoodness! A chapter finally didn't end with Rella going to sleep! I think I'm going to have a heart attack! Okay, not really. Anyways…er…I was gonna say something, but now I can't remember what. Oh well.


	10. The Prince's Ball

The gray stone towers of Castle Valava stretched overhead, towering above the front courtyard, where coaches and carriages of various shapes, colors, and sizes were pouring inside the open front gates. The Prince's ball was indeed known throughout the kingdom, for some of the elegantly gowned ladies stepping delicately out from the many coaches where from the farthest corners of the kingdom of Valava, and had traveled many miles just to get to the center of the kingdom for this one ball, this one chance to become a member of the royal family.

Among all the coaches and beautiful ladies entering through the open gates, the snow white coach pulled by equally white horses didn't stand out at all. The auburn-haired beauty that descended nervously from within passed by like all the others, the blonde that drove her horses leading the coach to the area reserved for parking of carriages.

Rella, moving with the crowd, headed inside the large open doors, into the magnificently large entrance hall. There was one scary moment as she was stopped by a herald standing just within the door; but he merely asked for her name and place of origin, so she could be announced to the Prince. "Lady Rellana tir Lorea, of Nordon, on the far eastern edge of the kingdom," she had replied, mentally blessing the fairies for briefing her on who she supposedly was and where she had come from.

Freed from the herald, she was able to look around and admire the grand entrance hall of the castle. It was a simply gigantic room, bigger even than the entrance hall of Rhianna's castle had been. The ceiling stretched miles above, and the round room was simply gigantic, her blue slippers tapping lightly upon the tiled floor. Long tables stretched along the sides of the room, refreshments placed out along their length; another, longer table stood at the head of the room, a table at which the royal family sat, the King, Queen, and their only son sitting majestically upon their thrones.

Getting her first look at the Prince she was here to try to marry, Rella could see why there were so very many attendants to this ball. Besides his royal status, Prince Thadindor was devastatingly handsome. His blonde hair curled lightly around his face, wisps of it escaping every now and then to drift into his astonishingly blue eyes. He had the perfect face to go with the perfect body, and it was certainly understandable why half of the woman present would kill for a chance to marry him.

Nearby the smaller throne where the Prince sat, another herald stood, introducing the other ladies present at the ball to him. As Rella stepped in the doorway, she could hear the man all the way from the other side of the room, announcing, "The Ladies Lianne and Anastasia Tearlia, daughters of the Lady Sorceress Rhianna Tearlia--"

Stepping around a fat woman in a hideous pink gown who insisted on blocking the way for everyone else, she saw Lianne and Anastasia in all their hideousness, curtsying far less than gracefully to the handsome Prince. _Ha! _I _can even curtsy better than they can, _Rella thought triumphantly.

Seeing the barely suppressed grimace upon the Prince's face as he looked at the two sisters, Rella tried very hard not to laugh. She didn't quite make it, but at least she managed to hide the laughter behind a hand.

Yet another herald--how many heralds did this place have, anyway?--steered her towards the back of a line of women waiting to be introduced to the Prince. The line was growing shorter steadily, despite constant additions; most of the ladies had arrived well before Rella, and had already been introduced to the Prince.

"Just wait here until it's your turn," the herald told her, and so she did. Listening with half an ear to the introductions of the ladies ahead of her, she did her best not to wipe her sweaty hands on the front of her dress, and started to wish she could help herself to a drink of water to ease her dry throat.

After what seemed like an eternity, her turn came. Taking a deep breath, she walked in front of the Prince and dipped down into a curtsy, wobbling slightly from anxiety. "The Lady Rellana tir Lorea," the herald announced.

Daring to take a look up, she saw the Prince looking at her with interest, and blushed crimson. "Greetings, Lady Rellana," he said softly, making her cheeks burn even redder; he wasn't exactly required to say anything to the ladies he greeted, and she knew he hadn't said as much as two words to most of the ladies. "Perhaps we can talk later?"

She knew her cheeks must be burning bright red by now, but if the Prince saw, he didn't seem to notice. She stammered something she hoped would pass for polite conversation, and got away as soon as possible. A waiter handed her a glass of clear, sparkling water; she took it without really looking at it and downed half of it in one gulp, praying her cheeks would cool soon.

Left on her own, she wandered over to one of the side tables, helping herself to a tiny sandwich as she had seen some of the other ladies doing. Her cheeks at last back to their normal color, she risked looking at the Prince again; he wasn't looking at her, as she had half expected, but at the young blonde beauty curtsying before him, the last of all the ladies to be introduced.

After the blonde was introduced, the King clapped his hands, and curtains placed on either side of the table at the head of the room lifted, revealing alcoves within the wood, where a group of musicians sat. The King nodded to them, mouthed something, and they set to their instruments and played.

Everyone else in the room automatically moved into the starting positions for the Cariare. Rella was a step behind everyone else, but no one really seemed to notice, as everyone was looking towards the Prince, who had descended from the Throne and was joining the others in what the fairies had said was his favorite dance.

A heartbeat later, the dancers began moving, Rella included. She was somewhat surprised to find that she could manage to keep up with everyone else on the dance floor--_I only learned to dance two weeks ago, and they've probably known how all their lives!_

The next dance the musicians began to play was a waltz. Everyone was anxious as the musicians set up their instruments for the dance known as the Baroque Waltz--for this dance, the Prince would have to choose a single partner, and everyone was wondering who it would be.

The Prince began moving through the crowd, making his way through the people with purpose, seeming never to notice that all eyes followed him and that each woman he passed by without even looking at pouted and looked distressed. He was coming closer and closer to the place in the crowd where Rella was standing--

_No. No way. He has to be coming towards somebody else who just happens to be standing around me, he _has _to--_

Prince Thadindor smiled charmingly at Rella and bowed to her, sweeping out his arm. "If you would do me the honor of joining me for this dance, milady...?"

Stunned, she did nothing but let him lead her out onto the dance floor. She couldn't help but notice the jealous glances the other women sent her way that the Prince seemed completely oblivious to--once, she even heard Lianne's voice whispering savagely, "Why her, hmm?! What does she have that I don't?!"

Rella couldn't help but agree with Lianne. _Why me? I mean, I can see why he'd rather dance with me than with Lianne, but what about all the beautiful ladies here? I'm just a scullery maid, I'm not a beauty, I'm not a noble, I shouldn't be standing here, dancing with the Prince..._

But yet there she was, and it was all thanks to the fairies that she was. Taking a deep breath, she let the Prince loop his arm around her waist, and began twirling in time to the musician's tune.

All throughout the dance, Rella was afraid she would stumble, or step on the Prince's toes, or something equally embarrassing--but somehow, she survived. The dance ended after what seemed like a torturous eternity, and she sank down into a conveniently nearby chair.

The next dance was a popular jig called the Rayaja, and the Prince chose another partner for this dance, which Rella was grateful for. Although she knew the steps, and she got several offers from other young men to partner her for the dance, she declined, instead choosing to sit on the sidelines and drink some water.

Most of the rest of the evening passed by in a blur. The Prince partnered her again for the next dance, and then chose several other partners for the next few. She danced with some of the other young men that seemed oddly eager to dance with her, but eventually the Prince reclaimed her for another waltz. She couldn't help but notice that he had so far danced with her more than he had danced with any other single woman, and had to wonder why.

It was after that waltz that the King announced a formal break. Retiring to the sidelines again, Rella took another of the small sandwiches, even though she wasn't hungry, and forced herself to eat it. She was in the process of gulping down another glass of water when the Prince came to her yet again.

"Greetings again, milady Rellana," the Prince said amicably, taking a chair next to her. Choking, she nearly dropped her glass of water, and caught it in time, but not before splattering it on her dress. Mentally muttering curses, she turned, only to find the Prince ready with a napkin waiting for it. Taking it gratefully, she dabbed at the puddle on her skirt uselessly, at last giving it up for a lost cause.

"I apologize profusely," the Prince said, sounding polite and sympathetic but not truly sorry. "I was simply wondering if you would perhaps like to walk for a bit outside? The castle has some truly lovely gardens; you really should see them before you leave."

If she had still been holding her glass, she would have dropped it again. First the Prince doting attention on her all night, and now he was offering to take a private walk with her in the royal gardens! Out of the corner of her eye, she could see several of the other ladies giving her jealous glances, a fact that made her feel quite uncomfortable. She stammered something; she wasn't sure exactly what, but apparently it passed for an "I suppose so," as the Prince delicately looped his arm around her own and strolled off confidently, leading her to a small door set off to the right.

The castle gardens truly were lovely; although the only flowers she recognized by name were the rosebushes, she could still appreciate the many other kinds of flowers, trees, and bushes the large royal gardens were filled to the brim with. The top was open to the sky, the garden surrounded by tall hedges, enclosing the garden and ensuring privacy. Gray cobblestone walkways led around the gigantic enclosed gardens, entwining throughout the bushes. Small white benches, just big enough for two, were scattered elegantly about the paths.

The Prince led her not to one of the benches as she had expected, but instead to the water fountain in the center of the garden, a water fountain in the shape of a satyr. The stone half-goat was blowing a horn, out of which water cascaded delicately. The Prince took a seat on the rim of the fountain, carefully inspecting it first to be sure it was not damp. He seemed to expect her to do the same; wondering why in the world she had ever agreed to go to this ball in the first place, she gingerly took a seat beside him.

"So, Lady Rellana," the Prince said, giving her a dazzling smile that made her heart pound. "Have you been enjoying your visit to the kingdom of Valava?"

She blinked. "I...guess so. I mean, well, yes I have, of course, I--"

"Milady," he said, interrupting with a frown, "you don't seem at all comfortable here. You haven't for the whole evening. What is it?"

"I--I just, well, I mean," she stammered incoherently, flushing and wishing for the moment that she could magically disappear into the ground. "It's just...I'm just a scul--I mean, that is...I guess I've just never talked to a Prince before," she concluded lamely.

"Is that all it is?" he asked, smiling warmly. "Well, you don't need to be uncomfortable; I'm just as human as you are, after all."

"Well...I mean--I suppose that's true, Your Highness, sir, but I just--"

"Please, don't," he protested, interrupting her again. "You have no idea of how tired I get of having everyone 'Your Highness'ing and curtsying every five seconds. You can just call me Thad," he finished, giving her that warm, dazzling smile again.

She gulped. _First a Bard telling me to call him by his first name, now a Prince telling me to call him by--by his nickname! What is _wrong _with these people?! I'm just a scullery maid!_

"I--I mean, I--I wouldn't, couldn't presume to, to--"

He sighed. "Please, Lady Rellana," he protested plaintively. "You _don't_ have to be uncomfortable around me. I really wish you wouldn't; you of all people I don't want curtsying and simpering every chance you get, trying to get on my good side."

She blinked, staring at him. "Why do you say me of all people?" she asked, forgetting for the moment to be polite.

"Oh, no particular reason," he stated nonchalantly, then gave her another of those charming smiles. "But I would appreciate it if you'd talk to me more like you just did, and less like you have been."

"I--I'm just trying to be polite," she stammered, feeling incredibly awkward.

"Don't worry about it, Lady Rellana," he told her, still smiling. "And--"

"Please," she interrupted. She couldn't help it; being constantly called a Lady when she wasn't one was bothering her, and with any luck, the Prince would think she was just trying to make sure they were both on first-name terms. "I don't--I'm not--don't call me Lady Rellana, okay? It...makes me uncomfortable. Just...you can call me Rella."

"Only if you agree to call me Thad."

"Well...alright, Your Highness. I mean--Thad."

"Good." He smiled once more. "Rella." He shifted position slightly, making himself more comfortable. "Well, now that we've spent all this time getting you to agree to call me by my name, let's get back to the original question. Are you enjoying your visit to Valava?"

"Well...I guess so. I mean, I've lived--that is, my home country is pretty much just like it is here. I guess...I guess most countries are a lot alike."

"In some ways, yes, I suppose they are. But--where is your home country, anyway, Rella?"

She silently blessed the faeries for having given her a cover story about where she came from. "Nordon," she told him; it was a small, quiet town just near the eastern border of Valava. Being Lady of a small, country place like Nordon would hopefully help to account for any small social mishaps she might make; or at least, that was what the faeries had said. "I don't suppose you've heard of it?"

"But of course; after all, one of these days I'm going to be King over all the kingdom, including Nordon." The smile faded momentarily, but was back in full force so quick that Rella had to wonder if she had but imagined it. "If you come from there, then you must have traveled quite a long way to attend this ball." He tilted his head to one side, curiously. "So far, has it been worth it?"

"I...suppose so," she faltered, unsure of what to say. "I just..." She frowned, looking at him. "Why have you been spending all this time with me?" she demanded abruptly, in what was apparently a complete change of subject. "Why not one of the other ladies out there, someone who's of higher rank than me and far more beautiful?"

He shook his head at her, and then was silent for a moment, regarding her. "You, milady, are quite an attractive young lady," he said at last. "I might even go so far as to say you're the prettiest woman out there--and that, let me assure you, is saying quite a lot. You caught my eye ever since the herald first introduced you; and as for rank, I could care less if you're Lady of some backwater place like Nordon."

"You would care if I wasn't noble at all," she replied daringly, feeling momentarily quite brave.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "If you weren't noble at all, I would assume you wouldn't be at this ball," he said mildly. "And beyond that--no, I wouldn't care. You could be a scullery maid and I'd still be attracted to you."

She did her best not to wince, and decided not to answer the scullery maid comment. "I thought the invitation was to all eligible maidens," was all she said.

"Yes, and half the women out there aren't maidens," he replied cynically. "But, no matter; despite what the invitation might have said, the only ones who would have the means to get here would be those of noble birth. After all," he added, barely hiding the note of disdain in his voice, "how would a kitchen maid be able to afford a dress like--oh, the one you're wearing, for instance?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said mildly. "I suppose they might be able to find a way."

"Yes, but then how would they get a coach, and horses, and someone to drive it? The only way there could be any non-nobles here is if they were a sorceress, and no sorceresses ever work in kitchens."

"No, I suppose not," she said vaguely, wishing desperately for a change of subject, to something that might make her less uncomfortable.

He smiled at her again, and she could feel her heart pound. "I'm sorry; I suppose our conversation has gotten rather off-track, hasn't it?" Stretching, he shifted himself into a more comfortable position. "So what is it like in Nordon?"

"I don't--backwards, I guess. Not at all interesting to hear about."

"I see. And what sort of things do you like to do in Nordon?" he asked, tilting his head to one side and gazing at her with those intensely blue eyes.

"Um," she stated eloquently, desperately trying to think of something noblewomen did with their time that she might actually know something about. "I like horses," she blurted out at last. "I mean, riding them."

He smiled. "No, I assumed you meant feeding them. So do you ride often, back home?"

"Well, sort of. I haven't much lately because--" Searching her brain for a way to explain her lack of having ridden recently, the real reason being her six years at Rhianna's, she suddenly had an idea. "--because, see, my father didn't really like it. He said it wasn't ladylike, that if I had to ride I should at least do it sidesaddle."

The Prince blinked. "Well, you have to admit he does have a point. I should hate to think what the people of Nordon would say if they saw their Lady riding astride."

She shrugged. "Yes, but you would think I should be able to ride how I wanted to, at least when I'm at home. Although actually, I think it was the part about me wearing breeches that got to him more than the style of riding did." She smiled up at him sweetly through her lashes, wanting to see how he took this rather unladylike announcement.

He merely blinked, looking surprised. "Breeches?"

She nodded. "Well, yes. After all, one can't properly ride astride in a dress, you know. It's so much easier in breeches. But Father didn't like it."

The Prince looked as if he didn't quite know _what_ to think of this. "Well...breeches aren't exactly typical clothing for noblewomen," he said at last.

"Neither is riding astride," she reminded him. "But, oh well, we needn't discuss clothing now. We've been out here for a while--shouldn't we go back inside?"

"I...suppose so." Still looking slightly stunned at her having the audacity to admit she had worn breeches, he actually let her take the lead, going back into the grand hall by herself. If she had thought no one would see her, she would have laughed at the expression on his face.

The dancers were just finished a song as the two reentered, and struck up another one immediately afterwards. The Prince chose a different partner for this waltz, for which she was grateful, but he returned to her for the next dance, and the one after. She almost felt as though the jealous glances of the other women were leaving a visible burn mark on the back of her neck.

Over the remainder of the evening, she had plenty of opportunities to talk to and dance with Prince Thadindor, and her opinion of him dropped a notch. Handsome he might be, but his attitudes on certain issues were typical of male noblemen--disdain towards those of lower rank, and the feeling that women were inferior to men, that their only use was for marriage and producing children. He never actually said as much, but it was painfully obvious through some of his harmless little comments, and the tone of his voice when he said them.

The later it got, the more and more uncertain she became about the Prince, and whether or not she really wanted to marry him. True, he was devastatingly handsome; she could feel her heart pound every time he gave her one of those warm smiles, or gazed at her admiringly with those startlingly blue eyes. But she hated to think of what would happen if he ever discovered she was really just a scullery maid, despite his reassurances that he would still be attracted to her no matter of rank. And besides that, she knew she despised his attitude about women.

Yet, who knew; once he had time to get used to the idea, he hadn't really seemed to mind the fact that she wore breeches and rode astride; had in fact seemed rather intrigued by her audacity.

And at the same time, she could tell he was quite arrogant and selfish, in a way only royalty could be. Despite his having told her that he hated having everyone bow and suck up to him whenever they got the chance, once they were back in the ballroom, he seemed to expect it of everyone and take it for granted. She knew she didn't want someone for a husband who expected that of people, and for some reason, with that thought her mind flashed back to Bardic, and she remembered how uncomfortable he had been when she had treated him with all the formality due a Bard.

With the thought of Bardic came a sudden and overwhelming wave of homesickness, and in that moment, she would have given anything just to be back in her campsite, with the faeries, with Bardic, with the ones that had become the only family she had.

She didn't have time to be homesick for long, as the Prince came to her again and led her again out to the gardens, the two again taking up their past seat by the fountain. Feeling awkward once more, she let her hand trail in the water slowly, creating ripples wherever it went, ripples that spread out to the farthest reaches of the pool.

Looking up at the gigantic clock that hung on the side of a tower far above the grand hall, she realized it was almost midnight, and stared. Where in the world had all the hours gone? Blinking, she looked back at the Prince. "I...it's almost midnight. I mean, I should be going."

"Why?" he asked lazily, stretching out luxuriously. "The party is going to go on for several more hours, at least. There's no reason you should leave now."

"I know, but...I mean, I'm not used to staying out this late. I shouldn't--well, I'm already getting tired."

"Nonsense." He smiled warmly, taking her hand in his. "I still have yet to choose my bride, and what in the world am I going to do if my bride has already left?"

She blinked, staring at him, able to feel her heart pounding in her chest. "What...what do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." He raised her gloved hand to his lips, softly depositing a kiss upon the back of her hand. "I'm here to choose my bride--and I'm going to choose you." Leaning over, he tried to kiss her on the lips, but she turned her head away, and his lips landed instead upon her cheek.

Heart hammering wildly, all she could do was stammer, knowing she had to sound like the simpleton Lianne and Anastasia had always told her she was. "I--I mean--you--but--why--I mean--just--well--but--you--you can't marry me!" she at last blurted out. "I mean--I'm not--I'm not a--a proper wife, for, for you! I mean, I, I wear breeches, and I ride, I ride horses, ride them astride, like a man, I'm not--"

He shushed her, placing a single finger delicately against her lips. "Shh. I couldn't care less about all of that. And I _will_ marry you, I don't care what anyone else might say about it." Leaning over, he ensured she stayed silent by kissing her fully on the lips.

Rella froze, going entirely stiff as he placed his arms around her and pulled her up to her chest. The kiss lasted far longer and was far more intense than Rella would have liked, and she pulled away as soon as she dared and stood, shaking.

"I--I mean--what--what if...what if I don't _want_ to marry you?" she at last managed to get out, stuttering and shivering, although she wasn't cold.

He frowned, looking at her in a confused sort of way. "What do you mean, what if you don't want to marry me? You're here, aren't you?"

Glaring at him, she took a deep breath and at last let herself go. "I only came here because Emerald and Ruby and Bardic wanted me to, I didn't even _want_ to come here! I'm not a--I'm not a proper noble and I look horrible in this dress! And I think, while you are extremely handsome, you are arrogant, rude, ignorant, selfish, stuck-up, and spoiled, and I do _not_ want to marry you!" Gulping, she remembered who she was talking to and shut up.

_Great going, Rella, just great, _she chided herself mentally, still shivering. _Now you've ticked off the Prince, just great! He could have you beheaded if he wanted to, just for refusing to marry him, much less calling him arrogant, rude, ignorant, selfish, stuck-up, and spoiled, no matter whether he is or not!_

But Prince Thadindor was just staring at her, shocked. "You--what--how--"

_He sounds like me,_ Rella thought. She would have laughed if the occasion hadn't been so serious.

At last he took a breath and stood, glaring back at her. "I am _not_ arrogant, or rude, or selfish, or--or anything else! And--and if you didn't want to marry me, you shouldn't even have come to this ball! Dammit, I _am_ going to marry you, whether you like it or not!"

She glared at him coldly, beyond all emotion except for anger and indignation. "Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!"

That said, she turned and began to stroll, deceptively calm, back to the ballroom. She heard the Prince rise behind her, and heard his footsteps, and broke out into a run. The Prince's footsteps increased behind her; she dashed through the ballroom, knowing the two of them were attracting stares, but not caring.

Trying to run down the small flight of stairs halfway through the ballroom, she tripped, falling and nearly twisting her ankle. One of her shoes fell off; cursing, she shoved off the other slipper and stood, leaving them where they were. Hiking up her heavy, encumbering skirts, ignoring the silence and stares everyone else was giving her, she began to run on bare feet towards the exit, the Prince constantly behind her.

Cursing fluently, she continued to run, heading towards the stables. Sliding to a stop nearby where her horses and coach were parked, she looked around for Emerald.

The faerie was apparently nowhere in the stables. "Emerald!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

No answer, and the Prince's running footsteps were close behind her.

Cursing once more, using the colorful vocabulary she had picked up from listening to her father and some of his clients, she hiked up her skirts once more and began to run once more, abandoning all hope of finding Emerald and escaping from here in her coach. Turning, she ran towards the forest on the eastern side of the castle; she knew that they went beyond the boundaries of the castle, and the gate didn't go through them.

Once inside the forest, she had something of an advantage in their strange chase; not exactly that she knew how to be quiet in the woods, but the Prince was even worse than she was. She could have heard him a mile away, breaking twigs, rustling bushes, and cursing loudly as branches caught in his hair.

She ran for what seemed like an eternity, and yet it was over amazingly fast. Her feet had begun to hurt a while ago, and she was amazed that the Prince was still chasing her, wanting to catch her and--and what? Drag her back to the castle and force her to marry him?

Before she had long to ponder what the Prince would do to her when he caught up with her, she knew. Tired, she had begun to slow, and the Prince had been growing ever closer for the past several minutes. At last, he caught up to her; breathing heavily with the exertion of running for so long, he ran straight into her, knocking the both of them over into a nearby bush.

She let out a yelp as the bush's thorns scratched her, and then yelled again as the Prince hit her in the side of the face, so hard that her head whipped to one side, and she was sure there was a red mark on the side of her face. The Prince began to struggle to his feet; she did her best to climb to her feet, but the bushes hindered her progress, and the Prince grabbed her by the arms before she could manage to run. Turning her around, he hit her again, on the other side of the face.

Hands grasping at the back of her dress, he tried awkwardly to find some clasp or way of unbuckling it; realizing at last what the Prince was planning to do to her, she gasped in a mix of horror, shock, outrage, and fear, and did her best to wrestle out of his grasp and escape.

The only thing she succeeded in doing was ripping the bodice of her dress, and ripping the hem as she stepped on it. Turning back towards him, she swung her hand upwards, striking him in the side of the head as hard as she could manage.

He let go of her for a moment; turning, she ran, but fell to her knees, tripping again on the too-long hem of her dress. He was on her immediately, shoving her to the ground. Hand groping in the dirt, she found a heavy rock and flung her hand upward, smashing him in the forehead with a rock and flinging dirt into his eyes.

Climbing to her feet, she ran again, but he caught up to her far too quickly. He started to hit her again, over and over, until her ears were ringing and her head was numb from the repeated blows. She felt tears running down her cheeks, but didn't care in the shadow of the mind-numbing fear that had taken root upon discovering what the Prince wanted with her.

He beat her senseless, hit her until she couldn't fight back. She struggled weakly, but still he managed to rip apart the shreds of her dress that remained, leaving her naked, cold, scared, and defenseless. Staring up at him with wide, frightened eyes as he began to unbuckle his belt, she saw him smile, coldly and cruelly and completely unlike the warm, kind smiles he had given her earlier.

"What do you _mean_ you don't know where she is?!"

"Just what I said," Emerald informed him, undaunted in the face of the Bard's indignation. "I wasn't in the stable for a while, and when I came back around midnight, I did a scrying spell to check inside the ballroom. She wasn't there. I don't know where she is."

"Can't you faeries do something, find her? Track her down with your magic?"

She shook her head. "No. If we had something of hers, that had been hers for a long time, to track her with, we could--a lock of hair is the traditional thing. But as it is, we can't."

Scowling, he began to pace. "What the hell is your stupid faerie magic good for if you can't even _find_ her when she's missing, then?!"

"Not much, sometimes," Ruby spoke up, looking sad. "You two...I'm worried. Wherever Rella is, I think she's in trouble. _Big_ trouble."

Long after the Prince tired of her and left, she lay there, sprawled naked in the mud, tears running down her cheeks. She hurt--hurt all over. She kept reliving it all inside her head--how much it had hurt, how she had whimpered in pain, and how he had ignored her, his only reply his moans of pleasure. How he had at last tired of her, pulled his pants back on, and left, leaving her alone in the mud. How much she still ached. How much she felt as though she had been ripped apart, and how she felt as though he had raped her mind and soul as well as her body.

She lay there for hours, sobbing, unable to think of anything, anything at all except for how much she hurt. At last, she cried herself to sleep, still laying, naked, sprawled ungracefully into the mud.


	11. Homecoming

The next day dawned bright and sunny, exactly the opposite of the last day, and of Bardic's current state of mind. Waking, he immediately looked around, looking to see if Rella had joined them in the night.

The only others there were the faeries, having a worried conference on the other side of the remains of last night's campfire.

Scowling, he rose from his bedroll, ran his fingers through his hair in an effort to look half-decent despite his restless night, and walked over to join the faeries.

"Any idea what happened to Rella?" he asked, seating himself in an empty space by the fire remains.

Ruby simply shook her head, looking worried. Emerald put her head in her hands, and sighed. "She's in trouble," was all she said. "We know that. The only question is..._where is she?_"

Bardic found he was trembling. "You two should be able to do something," he snapped. "You ought to be able to _find_ her. We _have_ her packs, maybe we can find something of hers in there! Why don't you two try _looking?!_"

He realized the two faeries were staring at him, and he'd been nearly yelling. Blinking, he took a deep breath. "I'm...I'm sorry. I just..." Rising, he walked to the edge of the clearing, banging his fist against a tree and leaning against it. "Dammit all," he muttered softly under his breath.

Sun was shining, shining on her face. Startled, Rella realized she was awake.

_Should I get up? _she wondered. _No, I don't think I'll get up._

"Hey!" a voice exclaimed, somewhere nearby.

Rella sat bolt upright, and then gasped with the pain that the sudden movement sent flashing throughout her body. It was amazing how much she _hurt._

"Hey, lady!" the voice persisted. "What the hell happened to _you?_"

Looking around carefully for the source of the voice, she spotted a small boy on the other side of the clearing, dressed in little but rags. Annoyed, she recognized him as the street rat that had tried to steal her purse when she went to the market. Although it had been little but two months ago, it seemed like another lifetime.

"What do you want?" she asked, shivering and wrapping her arms around herself, in both an effort to warm herself and an effort to conceal her naked body.

"What happened to ya?" he repeated, sounding infinitely patient.

Losing her patience, she snarled at him. "I got raped by some royal asshole that thinks he owns the universe, alright?! I'm cold, naked, hungry, and I _hurt_, all over. I would _really_ appreciate it if you could leave me the hell alone!"

He blinked, staring at her. "Gee...I'm sorry, lady. Say, I said I'd do somethin' for ya, ifn' I could. Anythin' I could get ya? Ya know, clothes, food, somethin' like tha?"

Sighing, she rubbed her arms, trying without success to warm them. "I guess...get me some clothes. I don't care what, and I don't care how, just get me something to wear. If I eat I'm probably going to throw up."

The young boy nodded cheerfully and scurried off, leaving her on her own again. Sighing, she looked towards her dress. The beautiful thing was now nothing better than rags, ripped in a hundred places. Her underclothes had been hastily discarded beside it, and they had long rips in them too.

Staring at the remains of her clothes, memories of the night before came rushing back in. Rolling over, she saw blood lying where she had been laying--_her_ blood. She couldn't keep it in any longer. Holding her face above the mud, she vomited.

That done, she climbed to her feet, shaking unsteadily, and tried to balance on both feet. Her right ankle sent a stab of pain up her leg so intense that she gasped, lost her balance, and fell over again, landing right in the center of the mud.

Aching, she looked at her ankle morosely. _Twisted, if I'm lucky. Knowing my luck, though, it's probably broken. _Sighing, she took account of her injuries. She knew she had gigantic bruises all over her face, and most likely a bloody nose as well. For the most part, the rest of it was more bruises, or just aches and pains.

_Not too bad, I suppose._ She gulped, making herself hold in the tears that threatened to go pouring down her cheeks.

The thief returned in record time, holding a plain white shirt and tan breeches that he handed to her silently, and then scurried off. She knew they were no doubt stolen, but couldn't have cared less at the moment. Pulling them on, she couldn't help but feel slightly more decent, despite the fact that she was still covered in mud and blood, her hair was knotted and filled with more mud and blood, she had bruises all over, and she still hurt.

Taking a deep breath, she did her best to walk. She made herself put weight on her right ankle, because she had to; it hurt like hell, but it was better than lying there in the mud waiting for someone to rescue her. Bardic and the faeries were the only ones that were likely to rescue her, and who was to say whether they even knew where she was?

She walked for an eternity, slow and plodding, right ankle hurting intensely every time she put weight on it. She sternly screwed her face and didn't give in to the impulse to let tears spill down her cheeks--she would _not_ cry. Her pride wouldn't let her.

It seemed to take hours before she at last found the familiar campsite. A very familiar form was standing near the edge of the clearing, his back to her. The faeries rose to their feet, seeing her; Bardic, seeing the faeries staring over his shoulder, turned.

It was the last straw. "Bardic," she whispered, and stumbled forward, collapsing. But Bardic was there, and he caught her firmly in his arms, and simply held her, and let her cry.

Several minutes later, she was warm at last, wrapped in one of their blankets and sitting in front of a merrily blazing campfire, head resting on Bardic's shoulder. She couldn't help but be grateful for his supporting arm around her shoulders; without it, she would likely have fallen over, she was so exhausted. After having walked so far, she wasn't too sure she could move even if she had to.

The faerie's concerned faces hovered on the other side of the campfire, watching her worriedly. She knew they wanted to know what had happened to her, and when she thought about it, she couldn't really blame them; after all, here she was, having been missing for a day and then stumbling into their campsite, covered in mud, hair hopelessly matted, limping when she walked on her right foot.

She would have told them, but she didn't think she had the energy to right now. Wrapped in a blanket, warmed by the flickering fire, with Bardic's arm warm and comforting around her, she could hardly keep her eyes open. Yawning, she snuggled her head into the crook of Bardic's neck and closed her eyes, letting her weariness overcome her at last.

"Rella, don't--" Emerald's voice started to say.

"No, let her sleep," she heard Bardic say. She would have thanked him, but she was already drifting off into a dreamless slumber.

"Shouldn't we at least hear what happened to her?" Emerald demanded of Bardic, glaring indignantly at him.

"Not right now," Bardic told her firmly, returning the glare. "She's exhausted, and she needs the rest. She can tell us in the morning."

"He's right, Emerald," Ruby put in. "Let the poor dear sleep."

He slid an arm under her legs, rising and picking her up with him. She was far too light, and the thought occurred to him that he needed to make sure she ate something when she woke up. Walking to her bedroll, he laid her down gently inside, tucking the blanket in around her. Smoothing a stray piece of hair out of her eyes, he whispered, "Sleep," and returned to his place around the campfire.

A/n: On a side note, you might have noticed that the story takes sort of a different turn from the Prince's ball onwards. Darker, for one thing. More adult, definitely. I also think I did a better job of writing this part of the story than I did the first part. Well, whatever. Oh, and in a chapter or two, we're going to have unabashed fluff. This is a good thing. ^_^


	12. I'm...An Empath?

Bright sun was shining on her eyelids, making her stir and bury her face in her pillow, trying to get it out of her eyes. She didn't want to get up yet...

Suddenly, it occurred to her that she had apparently gone to sleep in her clothes. Doing so was quite uncomfortable, and not something she would have normally done. Sitting bolt upright, she blinked, looking around the camp, and suddenly the events of the last two days came rushing back.

It was apparently quite early in the morning; Bardic and the faeries sat around the campfire, eating breakfast. Ruby, looking up, spotted her and must have told the other two, for they both looked in her direction. Bardic, rising, grabbed one of their tin plates laying nearby, a plate filled with still-warm food, and carried it over to her, placing it in her hands despite her protests.

"No, thanks," she said, trying to give it back to him. "I'm...not hungry."

"Eat anyway," he told her firmly. "You need the food." Returning to his place in the campfire, she saw him watching her, making sure she ate all of the food. Sighing, she raised the slightly burnt meat to her mouth, taking a bite. With the first bite, her stomach immediately demanded more, _now_. Realizing that maybe he had been right, she began to devour the food hungrily.

She finished in record time, and before she even asked for more, she got some. She ate two more plates full of food before she was finally full--it was amazing how _hungry_ she was! At last done eating and forgetting about her ankle, she tried to rise and stretch, and immediately sat back down with a gasp of pain.

The others were around her in an instant; Ruby bent down to inspect her ankle, frowning slightly as she did so. "Broken," the fairy said at last, sighing. "I can fix it, though." Closing her eyes, she set her hands lightly on either side of Rella's ankle. Looking at her ankle and the faerie out of the corner of her eye, remembering how she could see through their illusions when she did so, she was still surprised to see a glow of light blue flooding throughout her entire foot, coming from the fairy woman, from a deep, seemingly endless pool of the light blue glow that she knew must be Ruby's magic.

The fairy sighed, taking her hands off Ruby's ankle and sitting back. "It should be fixed," Ruby told her. "Try it."

Letting Bardic help her up, she delicately tested it, putting some small weight on it before balancing entirely on both feet. "It--it doesn't hurt at all!"

Ruby, rising, proceeded to take her by the arm and lead her off, stating in a very motherly way, "Now what you need is a bath."

Remembering that she was covered from head to toe in mud, dirt, and grime, Rella blushed and didn't protest as the fairy led her to the small stream they had used before as a bathing site. With a quick wave of her hand, Ruby activated the spell that kept soap from leaking into the rest of the stream's water and poisoning the fish, and kept the fish out of their small bathing area. Rella was surprised to find that, even if she looked at it straight on, she could still see the outlines of the spell, in the light blue color she was already beginning to associate with Ruby's magic.

She decided not to mention her newfound ability to Ruby right now, and instead stripped without embarrassment, slipping with a sigh of relief into the warm water, heated by the same spell that protected the fish from the soap and the bather from the fish. The water was almost too hot, yet not quite, just the right temperature for soaking all your cares away, even though it made her many cuts, scrapes, and bruises sting, making her wince in pain.

Seeing Ruby staring at him, she winced again, realizing that her entire body was covered in bruises and dried blood. "I'll...tell you what happened later, alright?" Looking up towards the faerie, she saw her nod wordlessly, leaving soap, a washrag, and a towel atop a conveniently nearby rock. The fairy left, but then returned a moment later, carrying clean clothes from Rella's pack, one of her plain off-white dresses, one that had survived the days at Rhianna's without getting _too_ soiled and torn.

Rella scrubbed herself until she was pink and washed her hair thoroughly, and when she stepped out of the stream and wrapped herself in a towel, she felt almost human again. Stepping into the dress Ruby had brought, she did her best to get the knots out of her thankfully clean, damp hair. Finally done, she took a deep breath, gathered her stuff in her arms, and walked back out to the campsite.

The others watched her as she walked over to their packs and placed the towel, soap, rag, and hairbrush where they belonged; they tried to be inconspicuous about it, but failed utterly. At last, slightly unsteady on her feet, she walked over to the campfire and sat, in the empty space in between Bardic and Emerald.

The others continued watching her, each of them wearing varied expressions of worry. They all looked funny; so funny that she started to laugh, and once she started, she couldn't seem to stop, even though she knew her laughter was becoming more than slightly hysterical.

"I--I'm sorry--you guys just looked so--" Choking on the words, tears began to pour down her cheeks. Embarrassed, she hid her face in her hands, but couldn't seem to stop crying.

"Rella," Emerald said softly, still watched her concernedly, "what happened?"

Hiccuping and sobbing between words, she kept her face hidden in her hands, but somehow managed to tell them, forcing the words out past the tears that threatened to smother her. As she spoke, she was reliving it all in her mind; the fear, the pain, the hurt--memories rose to smother her, making her choke on her own tears. "Make it--make it stop," she heard a voice say incoherently, and realized it was her own. Before she had time to wonder at herself, she lost her balance and fell backwards, and everything faded away into blackness.

Bardic realized too late that Rella was about to faint, and didn't succeed in catching her before she hit the ground. He started towards her, but Emerald was there first, frowning and leaning over her, placing her hands on either side of Rella's face.

_What the hell is she doing?_ he wondered irritably, but decided not to ask. After a moment, she sat back, sighing and rubbing the side of her head. "Just what I thought." Turning, she looked at Ruby. "The trauma awakened her power, and she's apparently an empath besides, so she's only amplifying the hurt for herself."

"Excuse me, would someone like to explain to me what's going on?" Bardic interrupted, knowing he was being rude but not particularly caring at the moment.

Emerald, blinking as though she had forgotten he was there, looked up at him. "Sorry, I forgot you weren't a mage. Basically, when you have latent magical power, sometimes great trauma or stress can awaken it when you might not otherwise have to trouble with it. That's what happened to Rella. She also has empathic powers, which neither of us noticed until now, so they probably just now showed up along with the rest of her magic. She keeps remembering being raped, and her empathy is amplifying the emotions she felt and making her feel them again, only about ten times worse. It's no wonder she passed out." Sighing, she stared morosely at the unconscious girl. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

Looking towards Ruby, she continued. "We can put shields around her for now, to protect her from herself. But where in hell are we going to find an empath to teach her? There's not really that many of them, and neither of us has studied it."

"Then again, the Queen is an empath," Ruby replied, giving Emerald a meaningful look. Emerald looked thoughtful, then nodded.

Bardic wondered at this silent exchange, but decided not to ask; even if he did, the faeries probably wouldn't tell him. Instead, he just sat back, watching as Emerald bent over the unconscious girl, eyes closed and concentrating.

"Rella. Wake up."

Emerald's voice came, cold and demanding, out of the darkness. Sitting straight up with a gasp, she looked about her with confusion. "What...what happened? Did I...did I faint?"

"Yes, Rella, you did." Emerald sighed and sat back, looking somewhat put-out. "Do you know what an empath is?"

"An empath...?" Blinking, she shook her head to clear it, wondering what in the world empaths had to do with her fainting. "Um, yeah, I do...they're...mages who work with emotions, or something like that, right?"

"Basically, yes." Emerald sighed again. "Well, Rella, you're an empath. Great trauma and stress awakens magical power sometimes, and you're now suddenly an empath and a mage. Your empathy was feeding on your memories and amplifying your emotions, making you feel it all over again. So you passed out."

"I...oh." She might have questioned it, but she suddenly felt quite exhausted, and besides that, it fit the situation perfectly. Her bruises were starting to ache, and all she really wanted to do was go back to sleep.

"So now we have to get someone to teach you both empathy and magecraft," Emerald continued, going on as if Rella hadn't even spoken. "We think we know someone who might help, but...we don't know. For now, you're fine; I put a shield around you."

She wondered if she should test it with her newfound ability to see magic, but decided she was too tired to try. "I'm...tired. Can I go back to sleep now?"

Emerald opened her mouth to protest, but Ruby shook her head at her. "Of course you can," Bardic put in, ignoring the looks the two faeries gave him for so casually taking over. "We can talk more in the morning."

"Thanks. Cause I'm exhausted...don't know...why..." Yawning, she staggered over to her bedroll and fell into it, and was asleep at once.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, as near opposite Rella's mood as weather could possibly get. All three of the others watched her worriedly throughout the rest of the day; she would have laughed at them, but she didn't feel much like laughing, or smiling, or anything else. She hadn't for days, as a matter of fact. Not since the ball...

She firmly shoved that thought and the memories it brought out of her mind, and looked up, to see the other three watching her again. The faeries immediately looked in other directions as soon as she looked at them, and she couldn't help it; she smiled.

Bardic smiled back; actually, it was more like a grin. "At last, the Depressed One smiles," he teased her. She swatted at him; he ducked out of the way.

"Yeah well, I'd like to see how you feel if--" she began, starting a sharp retort; then her smile faded, and she cut off in mid-sentence. "I'll...be right back." Turning, she strolled off into the woods; Emerald started to follow her, but Ruby shook her head at her. "No. She needs to be alone."

Emerald shook her head, looking morose as she sat back down. "She actually _smiled_."

"She'll smile again," Bardic said determinedly.

A shriek echoed through the woods, not too far off from their campsite. Bardic's head jerked up. "That was Rella," he said, and was on his feet, had grabbed his bow and quiver, and was running before either of the faeries could say a word.


	13. The Battle Scene

The two faeries and Bardic burst into a large wooded clearing, to find a tall woman with incredibly long black hair and quite classic beauty standing surrounded by guards with a very surprised look on her face, standing over Rella's unconscious form.

Bardic had no idea who the woman might be, but he heard Emerald hiss, "Rhianna," behind him, so he guessed it was the infamous sorceress he had heard so much about. He started toward Rella automatically, but the sorceress looked at him and extended a hand, pointed towards Rella. "I advise you don't," she said coldly. "I could kill your precious little friend if I wanted to."

Stopping where he was, he grabbed an arrow from his hastily grabbed quiver and put it to his bow, pointed straight at the sorceress. "You do and I put an arrow in your throat," he said, his voice a match for hers in coldness.

Behind him, he heard the two faeries draw their bows as well; the guards stirred restlessly, and not a few of them put hands on their sword hilts. "If it comes to a fight, we're outnumbered," he heard Emerald hiss to Ruby.

"Ah, but except for Rhianna, none of them have magic," Ruby hissed back. "And even Rhianna doesn't have fairy magic."

"It seems we are at something of a stalemate," Rhianna said at last. "How about you just let me take back my maid and leave?"

"No," Bardic said, and a few more of the guards put hands on their sword hilts, glaring at him as though daring him to do anything to their mistress. His arms were beginning to tire from the strain of holding the arrow to his bow, but he kept it steady. "You can take her back over my dead body, you stone-hearted bitch."

Rhianna just raised one classic eyebrow, but was interrupted before she could speak by Emerald. "What's so great about Rella, anyway?" the fairy called. "Why can't you just get yourself another maid? It would be a lot easier than messing with faeries, trust me."

Rhianna turned the raised eyebrow to Emerald. "With as much power as this child has, power I could tap, I would be a fool to let her go. And a fool I am most certainly not." Her eyes flickered back to Bardic, and she smiled. "Well then, Sir Bard. If it is over your dead body that you want it, that is how you shall have it."

She made some gesture to the guards, and they moved forward, drawing their swords. Bardic let his arrow fly, but instead of hitting the sorceress, it merely landed with a thunk, carving a hole into the tree that was right behind where she had been before.

Cursing mentally, he picked another target and fired, praying that the three of them could manage to pick off the guards before one of them got close; at short-range, bows weren't much against swords. The guard he'd picked for a target shrieked and fell; the wound wasn't fatal, but it would keep him out of the action for a while, at least.

Arrows were flying everywhere, the guards cursing and trying to avoid them. One arrow that Bardic at first thought had been misfired hit what was apparently empty air, and someone made a small shriek of outrage. The sorceress reappeared, an arrow embedded in her arm, blood seeping from the wound and staining the sleeve of her long black dress.

Bardic took a chance, aiming an arrow at the now-visible sorceress; it hit her in the throat, and she went down with a sickening gurgle, only to be hit by two more arrows from the fairies as she fell. A sharp stab of pain shot through his shoulder, and he felt blood seep into his clothing; one of the guards had gotten close enough to hit him.

"Bardic!" someone yelled, fear in their voice. Turning, he saw Rella sitting up, and tried to say that it was okay, it wasn't that bad a wound. That was when he saw her dazed and unfocused eyes, and the way she was staring at the battle without really seeming to see it.

Suddenly a wave of fright washed over him, and he thought he heard himself scream. He fell, and he knew he hit the ground. He squelched in the mud--_but there's not mud on the ground, it hasn't rained for days_--and then suddenly great, intolerable waves of pain were washing over his body. He whimpered helplessly, feeling tears run down his cheeks, and heard someone moaning in ecstasy.

"Rella! _Stop broadcasting!_" he heard Ruby's voice yell nearby. "The guards are gone, you're affecting Bardic too!"

Suddenly, the pain, the fear and horror, were all gone. Sitting up, he blinked--the ground was perfectly dry, and the only pain was the sharp pain in his arm from where the guard's sword had gotten him. "What the hell...?" Getting to his feet, he shook his head to clear it, and looked for Rella.

She was sitting in the same place she had been before, but was no longer sitting up with that dazed, unfocused look in her eyes. Instead, she was curled up into a ball, hugging her knees and whimpering, sobbing softly to herself.

The guards were gone, the only one besides them who remained being Rhianna, and he was fairly certain the sorceress was dead.

"When Rhianna came, she took our shields off Rella," Ruby said quietly. "She went back into her cycle of memories, but she apparently saw you get injured, and tried to get the guards to leave us alone. So she broadcasted her memories--it was the only thing she could think of. Unfortunately, she doesn't know how to control her power, so she caught you up in it, too. The guards split, luckily."

"Damn," he said eloquently, shaking his head. "_That's_ what I was feeling?" He started towards Rella, then stopped, looking at the faeries. "Wait a second. Why weren't you two affected?"

"We are faeries," Ruby said simply, as if that explained everything.

Shaking his head, he walked over to Rella's curled up form. "Rella?" he asked softly, crouching nearby her.

His only response was a whimper.

So, he tried again. "Rella, come on," he said softly, smoothing her hair out of her eyes with a gentle hand.

"It hurts," she whispered softly, sobbing again. "It hurts, it hurts...make it stop, please..."

"Can't you two do something?" he asked, looking up at the faeries.

"I...we can try." Taking a deep breath, Emerald walked over to Rella and placed her hands on either side of the girl's face, closing her eyes. Rella whimpered, and Emerald exhaled slowly. A few moments later, Emerald's eyes opened. "Rella, wake up," the faerie said gently.

Rella merely whimpered and closed her eyes tightly, tears running down her cheeks.

"Wake up, Rella," Emerald repeated, more demanding this time.

No response at all, this time, not even so much as a whimper.

Ruby walked over, leaning over nearby the crying girl. "Rella, wake up," Ruby said gently, frowning. "You _need_ to wake up."

Still no response.

"Rella, come on," Bardic said softly, figuring it couldn't hurt for him to join in. "Wake up."

Silence.

"Why the hell won't she wake up?!" Bardic exploded at last.

Ruby shook her head, sitting back. "I...don't know. She just..." She took a deep breath. "I...don't think we can get her out of this one."

It took a while for them to get Bardic calmed down, but he eventually listened to reason. Emerald had told him repeatedly, there wasn't anything they could do, but it took a while to convince him of it.

It grated on Emerald's nerves as much as it did on Bardic's, because for once they were absolutely helpless. There was _nothing_ they could do, literally. The only thing they could do was...wait. Wait for Rella to wake up, wait for her to come out of her coma. They might even end up waiting forever, and while that wouldn't be too much of a problem for the faeries, with their immortal lives, somehow she thought Bardic wouldn't take too kindly to that idea. After all, he already wasn't taking too kindly to the prospect of having to wait even a few weeks.

Then again, Emerald could sympathize. She never had been too good at waiting.

And yet now, it was the only thing they could do.

The _only_ thing.

A/n: That was a short chapter…you know, I need to stop making all these a/n's. I know they're probably getting on your nerves. ^_^


	14. A Coma and a Kiss

A/n: Here comes that unabashed fluff I warned you about a few chapters back. Fluff is a good thing. ^_^

Emerald sighed, stretching out her tired legs and watching Bardic. It had been a week, and all they had done for that week was to sit around and wait for Rella to come out of her coma. Ruby had told Bardic the other day that it sometimes helped coma victims to wake up if they were talked to, and, of course, Bardic had then spent almost all of his waking hours sitting next to Rella, constantly running his mouth.

_He loves her,_ Emerald thought. _I wonder if he even realizes it--or if she does?_

_Ah, well. He's a good man, and I'm pretty sure she cares about him just as much. He'd be good therapy for her...assuming she ever wakes up again._

"He might as well talk to a wall for all the response he gets," she said to Ruby conversationally.

Ruby sighed, also watching the talkative Bard. "I know. But he thinks maybe it will help...and who knows, maybe it will."

Emerald shook her head. _You're too optimistic, friend. _She didn't say as much, though; if the others thought that Bardic running his mouth for hours was likely to help Rella out of her coma, she wasn't going to shatter their hopes.

_Then again, maybe she'll wake up just to get him to shut up..._

Bardic sat next to Rella, holding her hand in his and talking. He wasn't really sure what he was saying, but he was saying something, and that was what counted. Ruby thought talking to her might help her wake up, and although Emerald seemed doubtful, if there was any chance it would help, he'd do it.

Her hand was cold, too cold. If it hadn't been for the slow rise and fall of her chest underneath the blanket, he might have thought she was...

_Best not to even think about that one, Bardic._

He closed his eyes, letting his thoughts wander...yet somehow, they kept turning back to Rella. _Please wake up, Rella, _he thought, hoping that maybe some of his despair would creep into his voice and help her come around. _After all, you never know--she is an empath now._

He started to rub her hand, trying to warm the icy cold fingers. _I suppose the faeries think it's a lost cause. They think she's never going to wake up again, that I'm just wasting my time. But I don't care if I am wasting my time. I'll talk till the end of time if I have to._

Please, Rella, please wake up. Just wake up, please. Open your eyes, smile at me, and laugh at us all for how funny we look, all worried and concerned. At least make some noise. Please...

Please just don't...don't die on me now, Rella. You're tough, you can make it through this. You survived six years at Rhianna's and being raped by a Prince, dammit, you can survive this too! Please...wake up...

She was floating in darkness, darkness that surrounded her, threatening to overwhelm her. Part of her welcomed it, accepted it, for it was far better than going back to what she vaguely thought of as dreams, even knowing they were memories. She didn't want to accept that they were memories, didn't want to accept that she had been raped and left to die by the Prince of her country who she was supposed to marry.

And yet part of her persisted in shoving away the darkness, knowing that to fully accept it would end everything. It would put an end to her pain, but it would also put an end to everything else...and then she'd never get to see her friends every again, never get to see Bardic again...

With the thought of Bardic came a mental image, as clear as if it were one of her memory-dreams, an image of Bardic, standing over her dead body with bowed head, weeping silently. _No!_ she yelled mentally, rebelling against the image. _I won't...I don't want..._

Don't want what, Rella? the part of her that rebelled against the darkness asked herself tauntingly. _Don't want Bardic to cry, don't want him to be sad, or hurt? That's why you broadcasted your memories like that, wasn't it, to keep Bardic from being hurt?_

If you don't want him to be hurt, dammit, wake up. _The man loves you, and if you go and die on him now it'll break his heart._

I can't wake up! she yelled at the other half of her self. _I can't get out from the dreams long enough to do enough, or if I do, it's always the darkness! Why don't you just leave me alone and let me die?!_

Any other time, she would have thought she was going insane, talking to herself. Yet here...herself answered.

_Get serious, Rella! They're not dreams, they're _memories_, and you know it. Face it: you got raped by some asshole Prince who thinks he can do anything to anyone he likes, and get away with it, because he's always gotten away with it before. You know you're not the first woman he's raped. You survived not only rape but _six damn years _of being a slave to a sorceress, and now you're going to let a stupid coma kill you, and not even fight back?!_

Fine, you can die if you want to, I won't stop you. But if you give a damn about Bardic, wake up, tell the man how you feel about him, and get him and the faeries to help you go kick that bastard's ass and keep him from raping any more _women._

Suddenly Rella felt awfully alone, despite the fact that she had been talking to herself the entire time. Looking around at the darkness, she tried not to cry. She had told herself to wake up, and she had no idea how to do so. It was awfully tempting just to give in and let the darkness carry her away...

A strand of a thought came floating to her, not quite as clear as her dreams--memories--but still plainly audible. Bardic's voice: "Please just don't...don't die on me now, Rella. You're tough, you can make it through this. You survived six years at Rhianna's and being raped by a Prince, dammit, you can survive this too! Please...wake up..."

Although she had no body and no way to move in this strange floating darkness, she reached out for his voice impulsively. _Bardic's right, and the other me is right. I've survived a lot worse than this, and I'm gonna make it out of this. Don't worry, Bardic, I won't die on you. I'm coming..._

Rella's eyes flew open, and she sat straight up.

The faeries gasped, climbing to their feet and staring. Bardic blinked, staring at her. "Rella...?" he whispered, afraid maybe he had fallen asleep, and was dreaming.

She looked at him and smiled, and it made her face more lovely than ever it had been before, although no doubt it was somewhat amplified by his pure unadulterated joy at seeing her awake and alive. "Bardic," she whispered, and reached for him.

He pulled her into his arms, wrapping her in a comfortingly warm and tight embrace. Her arms flew up behind his neck, pulling him close, and she snuggled her head right underneath his chin, resting on his chest. For a moment, all he did was sit there and hold her, filled with joy at his knowledge that she was alive.

That was when Rella tilted her head back and kissed him.

Stunned, he just sat there, perfectly still as her lips eased over his gently and they parted. Taking a deep breath, she pulled back slightly and tried to get a good look at him, but then _he_ kissed _her._

Easing his lips over hers softly, almost hesitantly, he heard applause coming from the direction of the faeries. Blushing, he ended the kiss abruptly, both of them letting go of each other awkwardly.

"Aw, we were enjoying the show!" Emerald protested, grinning from ear to ear. Ruby's smile wasn't quite as large, but they both looked as though they approved heartily.

_I suppose that's a good thing,_ he thought, looking back at Rella.

She was blushing almost as bright a red as he thought he was, and glaring indignantly at the faeries. "Well, if you wouldn't have applauded, you wouldn't have stopped the show," she retorted smartly, making Bardic grin again in relief. _This_ was the Rella he knew, the person she had been before she was raped...the person he had fallen in love with.

Rella looked back up at him, grinned, and kissed him again. This time he took more of an active interest in the proceedings, and when they parted, Rella was looking slightly dazed.

Bardic knew he was probably grinning like a fool, but couldn't have cared less at the moment. Rella was out of her coma, alive, back to her normal self, and kissing him, and that was all that mattered for now.

Rella smiled softly up at Bardic, and then, seeing the silly grin on his face, burst out into laughter. "All right, I can't look _that_ funny," he told her, mock-offended. All she did was nod, and when she finally caught her breath, she looked up at him and told him quite solemnly, "Yes, you can."

Bardic smiled at her and got this look on his face like he might be about to kiss her again, but the faeries chose that inopportune moment to interrupt again.

"I hate to interrupt you two lovebirds again," Emerald started, "but--"

Suddenly her own voice came floating into her head, and she remembered what she had...well, said to herself, back there, when she was in a coma. _"Wake up, tell the man how you feel about him, and get him and the faeries to help you go kick that bastard's ass and keep him from raping any _more_ women."_

Well, she was awake, and she was pretty sure Bardic knew how she felt about him.

__

"Hey," she interrupted, looking at the two faeries. "I...sort of have an idea."

"Yes?" Emerald asked, looking at her curiously.

"Well...it's more like a plan, really. Well, sort of. But anyway...I'm asking you guys"--she looked up at Bardic--"all three of you guys if you'll help me. Help me...well, I guess help me get revenge on the Prince."

Emerald grinned ruthlessly. "Rella, do you know how long Ruby and I have been _waiting_ for you to say that?"

"I mean, it's not just revenge, though," she said, doing her best to explain. "I mean...I'm pretty sure I wasn't the first woman he raped. I'm not real sure how I know, but I do. And I want to stop him. I don't want anyone else to go through what I did."

She couldn't suppress a shiver, and held on to Bardic a little more tightly. His arm tightened around her, holding her even closer, as though he was never going to let her go.

_And isn't it odd, how I can react so negatively when to the Prince when he kisses me _very _intensely, and yet react so positively when Bardic kisses me and barely even brushes my lips?_

"Emerald and I will be _more_ than glad to help you, Rella," Ruby informed her, standing up. "And I think that between the four of us we can find a way to both make his life a living hell _and_ keep him from ever raping anyone else."

"I know one way we can keep him from raping anyone else," Emerald said, grinning. "It'd cause an awful lot of pain for him, too, and he'd have such a lovely singing voice afterwards!"

"Remind me never to make you mad," Bardic told Emerald solemnly.

"I take it you'll be helping us out too?" Ruby asked Bardic.

"Of course I will," he said firmly, kissing Rella gently on the forehead. "I'm helping whether you want me to or not."

Rella smiled in relief, glad that everyone had agreed so enthusiastically to her plan. "Well then, what exactly are we going to _do_?"

"Well, there's any number of secret passages inside the castle walls," Ruby said, sounding thoughtful. "We could maybe convince him there were ghosts in the castle, ghosts that were out to get him."

Emerald grinned. "We could even make him think that you died and are coming back to haunt him."

"I know a thief that might help us," Rella said, frowning in thought. Then she grinned. "He could steal some of the Prince's stuff, help us out in our ghost scheme. And I could talk to his horse and help him escape, or get him to bolt or buck off the Prince while he's riding."

"I could go to the castle and play for a while there; they always welcome Bards. While I'm there, I could play some songs, make him think I know what he did," Bardic put in. Then he grinned, and started counting songs on his fingers. "There's 'The Ballad of Aerowyn,' where the Lady Aerowyn was raped by her Uncle, and she goes off with her lover to get revenge on him, and succeeds. Or there's 'Sorceress's Hunt,' about a Prince liked to find pretty young country girls he could take advantage of, but then one day he raped the wrong person--she was a sorceress in disguise, and she used her powers to hurt him pretty bad. Or--"

"We get the picture," Emerald said impatiently. "So are we going along with the ghost-and-overly-knowing-Bard scheme, then?"

"I guess so," Rella said, shrugging. Squinting up through the trees, she saw the sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon. "Say...do you think we should go ahead and start today? I mean, it's a bit late for Bardic to show up at the castle, but we can go ahead and start convincing the Prince that the castle has ghosts now. After all, ghosts are supposed to only come out at night."

"Unless they're afraid of the dark," Ruby added. Seeing the two humans staring at her, she smiled at them. "What?"


	15. Tormenting the Prince

Emerald had said that the trapdoor in this old, rusty, abandoned barn led to the network of secret tunnels that ran throughout the entire castle. Rella wasn't sure she believed it, but figured if the faerie had said it, it was probably true. Climbing up the ladder, she raised the door on its hinges and stuck her head into the tunnel, looking around.

There were cobwebs all over the place in the wooden tunnel, but not much else. Grasping the edge of the door, she raised herself into the tunnel. It was barely big enough for the group to crawl on their hands on knees a single person at a time, and Rella had to wonder if the whole tunnel was going to be this way.

"It gets bigger further on," Ruby's voice called from behind her.

"I had hoped so," she called back, and continued crawling, ignoring the cobwebs that brushed against her arms and face. _Good thing I'm not afraid of spiders. Of course, I had to kill them far too often for Lianne and Anastasia to be afraid of them._

At last the tunnel emerged into another tunnel, widening here to where two people could walk comfortably side by side, and they could stand upright. Bardic somehow ended up walking beside her, not that she objected. Emerald produced a lamp from somewhere and handed it up to Rella, who took it and lit it gratefully.

They made their way through the tunnels, which reminded Rella of a labyrinth more than anything else. There were so many twists and turns and forks and side passages that she lost count of them all. Emerald was leading them straight to the passage that led behind the walls in the Prince's room, and to the peephole built into the wall. How Emerald knew that the passages and peepholes existed, and how to get to them, Rella decided not to ask. It didn't really matter. What did matter was to make sure that the Prince got very little sleep tonight.

At last they came to a dead end in the passage, with a pair of holes perfectly the size and shape of a pair of eyes set in the wall. Rella stood on her tiptoes and looked into them, hearing a door open inside the Prince's room.

The Prince walked into his room, stretching and yawning. He looked just as devastatingly handsome and well-dressed as ever, and didn't seem to show any sign of caring that he had not too long ago raped a young 16-year-old girl, costing her her virginity and what little of her innocence and naivete still remained.

Rella felt a surge of anger, and clenched her hands into fists. He shouldn't be able to just stroll elegantly around the castle, as calm and collected as ever, not after what he had done, what she knew he had done before.

The Prince, humming to himself, yawned again and grabbed the nightclothes that lay spread over the back of a nearby chair. He began to strip, discarding his clothes lazily on the floor; Rella turned away, looking back at her companions. She had already seen far more of _that_ naked body then she ever wanted to.

"He's getting ready to go to bed," she reported to the others in a whisper.

Bardic grinned at her. "Let's make sure he doesn't get a very restful sleep."

She grinned back and nodded. Turning back to the keyhole, she saw him climbing into bed. Turning, he blew out the candle on his dresser, then lay down in his bed and was immediately snoring.

"He's asleep," Rella whispered.

"What, already?" Emerald asked, surprised.

She nodded, then smiled. "Not for long."

The Prince sat straight up in bed, looking around him nervously. Bardic did his best not to laugh; apparently the faeries' imitation of ghost noises had woken him up. He gave them the thumbs up. The two became silent, then Rella grinned mischievously, threw her head back, and did her best imitation of a lupine howl--and Rella's wolf imitation was _very_ good.

Emerald reached out with her magic, making the candle on the Prince's bedside table flare into life suddenly. The Prince looked about him wildly, wide-eyed. "Who's there?" he called out into the darkness, clutching at the blankets as though they would protect him.

"Nooo onee," Ruby moaned in a deep voice, making the Prince jump and look around him wildly. Bardic tried really hard not to laugh, and blow their cover.

"I know you're there!" the Prince's voice called out, squeaking a little.

Rella moaned, doing her best to imitate a ghost. "No...don't...stop!" she cried, letting out a loud whimper. "Please! It hurts...it hurts..." She sobbed quite loudly, then looked at Bardic and grinned, whispering, "I hope he recognizes my voice, too."

Bardic grinned back at her, then whispered, "He's really freaked out right now. What say we give him a chance to get back to sleep, at least for a little bit?"

Prince Thadindor walked into the grand hall, looking as handsome and well groomed as he always did for court. The only exception was that today he had large bags under his eyes, as though he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep last night.

"Trouble sleeping, or did you just rub soot under your eyes?" his father murmured out of the side of his mouth as the Prince took his seat upon the throne.

He winced. "Some of the kids were playing ghosts," he murmured back. "They kept waking me up."

His father merely rolled his eyes heavenward and then sat up straighter, apparently losing all interest in the conversation. After a moment, Thadindor saw why; a new visitor to court, one dressed in the scarlet tunic and overrobe of a Bard, was approaching the two.

"Sir Bard Bardic North," the herald announced loudly, nearly in Thadindor's ear. He winced, and glared at the offending herald, rubbing the side of his head.

"Greetings, Your Majesties, Your Highness," the man demurred, sweeping into an elegant bow. "If I could be permitted to entertain your court this fine day by playing some tunes...?"

"Certainly, certainly," his father said graciously, gesturing to the alcove nearby the thrones that were reserved for Bards, always visitors of high status. The man swept another bow and moved towards the alcove, taking his seat and unpacking a full-length harp from its case. Clearing his throat, he placed his hands upon the strings, smiled to his audience, and began to play.

Dismissing the Bard as of no more importance now than background music, Thadindor rose from his throne and went to go mingle with the other denizens of his court. Lady Iliena approached him almost immediately; smiling indulgently, he let himself be swept off to be her partner for the dance the people of the court were forming in response to the Bard's music. The Lady Iliena was very beautiful, and very empty-headed--not that that was all bad in a woman. He might even have considered her for a wife at his ball--after all, not only was she beautiful and empty-headed, but he already had plenty of experience with her excellent skills in bed. He might have, however, had that beautiful auburn-haired bitch not shown up.

He barely managed to refrain from snarling at the memory of the little bitch, the one that had actually dared to _run_ from him when he tried to marry her. How _dare_ she! Half of the women out there would have gladly sold their souls to marry him, or even to be permitted merely to warm his bed for a while. And she was the one he offered the privilege to--and she insulted him and then ran!

He just had to chase after the bitch. He hadn't really intended to rape her, at first, only make her pay for having mortally insulted him so. But oh well; the bitch had deserved what she got, never mind the fact that it had been quite pleasant for _him_. There was something about a shrinking, frightened virgin that not even experienced women like the Lady Iliena could match.

The dance ended, he bowed politely to the Lady Iliena and tried to make his escape, but she insisted on tailing him, chattering constantly. Realizing he wasn't going to get rid of her, he let her dance with him for the next dance as well, but pleaded lack of energy after that. She had simply given him a look that said plain as day, "You _never_ run out of energy, and I know it," but had left him alone afterwards.

Helping himself to some of the stronger wine on the table, he sipped at it, enjoying the sweet taste of the drink from the best brewery in the entire kingdom. It was then that he recognized the next tune the Bard was beginning to play, and nearly choked on his wine.

The tune was "The Ballad of Aerowyn," an old ballad concerning an alleged woman named Aerowyn whom had been kidnapped and raped by her psychopathic uncle. She had then joined together with her lover and proceeded to get revenge upon her uncle; the original text of the ballad was probably truer, and said she got revenge upon the man by gelding him. The newer, more polite version just left the form of revenge up to the listener's imagination.

That wasn't all. Aerowyn was described quite vividly in the ballad, as an auburn-haired, green-eyed lass, tall and skinny, with modest curves and slightly tan skin. That description sounded quite familiar to Thadindor...

_And she gets raped and--_ Blinking, he stared at the Bard incredulously, only to see the young man looking straight at him, giving him a quite sardonic smile. He made himself swallow his sip of wine and set the glass down on the table, returning to mingle in the crowd, although his heart wasn't in it.

He knew. Somehow, the Bard knew, knew how he had entertained himself not too long ago with that pretty auburn-haired bitch. It was impossible, it made no sense, but somehow, he knew. He had to; the ballad wasn't a very popular song, even when it had first been made, century ago. There was no reason he should have played it--unless he somehow knew that the Prince's favored choice of nighttime entertainment was a nice, frightened virgin.

_He couldn't know,_ he told himself. _He couldn't. There's no possible way._ _Unless--_ Recalling the part of the ballad in which Aerowyn's lover had returned with her to exact their revenge, he took a closer look at the young man. _Could--could he maybe be that little bitch's lover?_

No, she probably doesn't even have _a lover, especially not someone like a Bard. After all, she as much as admitted she wasn't really a noble, she was just in disguise. I told her true when I said I wouldn't care if she were a scullery maid, too--I've bedded the castle maids plenty of times. And after all_--he hid a snigger--_the only reason most anyone would be her age and still a virgin would be if they couldn't get anyone to warm their bed._

No, he's not her lover, and he didn't pick that ballad just to freak me out. It's all just a big coincidence. Having thoroughly convinced himself, he headed off to continue mingling with the rest of the court.

Rella watched from her hiding point inside the castle stables, gazing down from the hayloft as Prince Thadindor walked inside, darkly muttering curses under his breath. He calmly ordered two of the stablehands to prepare his horse for riding, and they rushed to do as he said. A few moments later, he rode out of the stable, on his way to a nice, long trail ride.

Rella grinned. Now was her chance. Reaching out, she thought carefully, _Excuse me, Mr. horse?_

Hello! the answer came back at once. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't call me Mr. Horse, though. My name is Starlight. I wanted to talk to you all the time I was in the stable, but I saw you were hiding and I supposed you had a reason, so I kept quiet. But now you are the one talking to me, so I suppose everything is alright.

Rella tried her hardest not to laugh at how dignified Starlight could manage to sound while still being incredibly talkative. _Yes, you can talk to me now,_ she thought back at him. _And Starlight is simply a lovely name, and if you were still here I'd give you a sugar cube. But tell me, what do you think of your master, the one who is riding you now?_

Well, Starlight said, sounding thoughtful. He is very nice to me; he takes good care of me, and never uses painful bits, or spurs, or the whip. But he scares an awful lot of female twolegs, almost as if he makes up for not using the bits, or spurs, or whips on me by causing them pain instead. And yet they still flock around him when he is at home. I don't understand it.

She shook her head, sighing; this only confirmed her suspicions that she wasn't the first one the Prince had done this to. _So you don't like him very much?_

No, not really, miss. The females he scares are always very nice, like you. He shouldn't be so mean to them. I am always very nice to my mares when I breed with them, but he is not with his.

_I know, Starlight. Trust me, I know. But since you don't like him very much, could you do me a favor?_

Certainly, lady! I would be pleased! What is it I can do for you? Oh, just as long as it won't get me in trouble with my master and make him start using whips and spurs on me. That would be just horrible, really it would.

_Don't worry,_ she thought, trying to sound comforting. _What I want you to do is, while he's riding you, see if you can buck or rear or some such and get him to fall off. After he falls off, step on him or something, and then run away._

Hmm, Starlight said eloquently, sounding both thoughtful and intrigued. But he is a very good rider, lady, although not a very good herd leader. I do not know if I will be able to get him to fall off. And where will I go once I run?

_I'm sure a clever horse like you can find a way to make him fall off. Maybe if you catch him by surprise, it will help; wait for him to be concentrating on something else, then rear, and he'll probably slide right off._

The horse chuckled. True, lady; he is not concentrating on me even now. But what about where I will go? I certainly can't go back home, or he will be mad at me and beat me with a whip, I am sure of it. Then he will start using spurs and painful bits on me. That would be very, very horrible.

_Yes, it would be,_ she agreed with him, _and I certainly don't want you to get in trouble with as mean a master as he. Tell you what. Do you know where the forest nearby the castle is?_

Yes, indeed I do, lady. He hesitated for a moment, then added, Miss, are you one of the ones my master has scared in that way he does?

_Hush, Starlight, _she demanded. _It's something only we twolegs should have to worry about, you don't need to know. But when you run, go into that forest. There is another horse in there, a pony named Cloud. She's a perfectly lovely darling, and as sweet as sugar._

As sweet as sugar? I like sugar. I like mares, too. How shall I find her?

_You can just call for her, and she will answer. She's very curious; she won't be able to help herself. Just don't be mean to her, okay? She's a perfect darling, but the other horses tease her for being short. She's very sensitive about it, so don't mention it._

I promise you I will not be mean to her, lady, and I won't even dare mention that she is shorter than I am. I am very kind to mares, miss, I promise you.

She smiled. _Very well then, Starlight. Now that you know what to do, I have to go, but hopefully I will see you again. Actually, I know I will; I'll be returning to that same clearing that you are going to, the one with Cloud in it. She belongs to a dear friend of mine._

Alright, lady. There is no sense in saying good-byes, then, since we will see each other again. I have always thought good-byes were a silly twolegs tradition. I shall see you later, when you return to this clearing with this Cloud.

Smiling, she bade him farewell--despite his having said that good-byes were a silly twolegs tradition--and looked around carefully for servants before climbing down out of the hayloft. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe Bardic was going to end up with a foal on his hands due to Cloud's encounter with Starlight, and smiled at the thought.

Returning back into the secret tunnels within the castle walls, she sat, to wait for the others to return so they could resume their haunting of the Prince's bedchamber.

"We could use your help," Rella said, deciding that maybe being blunt was the best way to deal with the small street rat.

"What for?" Shark asked, tapping his foot impatiently, arms crossed over his chest.

"We're trying to make Prince Thadindor think the castle is haunted by vengeful ghosts that are out to get him. We were thinking maybe you could help us out; you know, make a few of his things disappear mysteriously. After all, you still owe me one. Two gold coins is more than enough to pay for a plain old shirt and breeches."

He frowned, considering this, then grinned. "Hell yeah, I help ya, lady! Tha' Prince, he raped me big sister las' year, n'got 'er preg', too. She done up an' died, though, havin' lil' baby girl, an' she die too. I help ya get r'venge."

Rella grinned back at him. "Thanks, kid. I'm trying to keep him from doin'"--she shook her head; apparently the street rat's atrocious accent was catching--"from doing to anyone else what he did to me, and to your sister."


	16. Revenge

Prince Thadindor was driven nearly to distraction, pacing his room furiously. He hadn't had a good night's rest in a week, what with those odd noises coming from the walls--it was enough to make one think the castle had ghosts. He wasn't sure it wasn't just his imagination, though; no one else in the castle had trouble sleeping.

The annoying Bard had left just the day before, but not before proceeding to play a list of songs every day that drove home the fact that he had done something very wrong by pleasuring himself with that auburn-haired girl, the "Lady Rellana tir Lorea," and to make him think that she would be coming back any day now to get her revenge.

_What is so wrong about what I did, hmm? I was just entertaining myself the way thousands of other men do every day, so what if she wasn't exactly willing?! The same thing happens every day in the whorehouses in the slums of the city, whorehouses I've even _been _to!_

Then there was how Starlight had mysteriously reared almost a week ago, catching him by surprise and making him fall off. Then the horse had proceeded to step on him in the worst place possible--_my crotch still hurts, dammit_--and bolt. The castle servants had searched for him ever since, with no sign of him whatsoever.

And then, of course, there was how possessions of his kept mysteriously disappearing, and the guards swore that no thieves had gotten inside the castle at all, at least not without being caught and stripped of their loot.

Altogether, it was almost enough to make him believe that beautiful little bitch "Lady" Rellana had died and was coming back to haunt him. After all, it would have explained an awful lot of things that had been happening to him lately, better than just plain bad luck would have.

Scowling, he at last gave in and crawled into the bed, even though he knew he wouldn't get a good night's rest tonight either. Sure enough, as soon as he was about to fall asleep, the ghostly voices started again. Gritting his teeth, he did his best to sleep through it.

The Prince was getting quite tired of the endless persecution that had been going on for almost two weeks now. At last, as the low, ghostly voices woke him for the fifth time that night, he sat straight up in bed, threw the covers aside, and stood. "Dammit, I know you're there somewhere!" he yelled, obviously driven to the snapping point. "Stop trying to haunt me and get out here and say whatever you have to say to my face!"

Rella frowned, looking at the faeries and Bardic. "Do you think we should?" she mouthed silently.

Emerald shrugged. "Because I want him to know why we're doing this," Rella whispered quietly. "And I want to somehow get _real_ revenge on him, make him feel what I felt, and make sure he'll never do it again."

"I'll go get a knife," Emerald said, grinning hugely. Rella gave her a Look.

Ruby shrugged. "Go for it," she told Rella.

"Wait," Emerald instructed. "Let me go first. I have an idea."

Reaching out with her magic, she lit the ever-present candle at the Prince's bedside, making it flare into sudden brightness. Reaching out with a hand, she pressed the switch that made a portion of the Prince's wall swing outward, allowing free access to his rooms; they had discovered that little addition to the tunnels quite by accident, as it happened, but now it was certainly coming in handy.

Emerald stepped out of the tunnels, and she saw the Prince's eyes widen; evidently he hadn't been expecting an actual faerie to step out of the tunnels. She tried not to grin.

"Hello, Princey," she said, voice sugary sweet, smile perfectly innocent. "I believe you have some things to pay for. For instance, a little more than two weeks ago, you raped someone. A very dear friend of mine, as a matter of fact; you could say she's like a sister to me. I'm feeling very much like gelding you right now."

"I think I know what she's planning," Ruby whispered, and stepped out after her. The Prince's eyes widened even farther at the sight of not one but _two_ real faeries, not that he wasn't already sweating at the threat of becoming a eunuch.

"Hello, Your Royal Arrogance," Ruby greeted him quite calmly, with none of the sugar sweetness Emerald had shown, just calm and cool indifference, as if he wasn't really worth the time she was spending on him. "The girl you raped, the one with auburn hair, and green eyes? She was a friend of mine, too, and she's become like a daughter to me. If you even remember her; I don't know if you would or not, since she's not the first woman you've done this to."

Bardic stepped out next, leaving Rella the only one still in the passage. "You're that Bard!" the Prince blurted out, recognizing him immediately. Bardic simply raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed, I am. How good of you to notice," he said, voice the epitome of cold anger. "I agree with these two; you have some things to pay for. The girl you raped? She is like a sister to Emerald, a daughter to Ruby, and I love her. We don't quite appreciate what you did...Your Highness. We're not leaving until you pay for it."

Rella stepped out from the passage, moving in front of the others. The Prince simply stared at her, speechless. "Greetings, Prince. Remember me, or have you forgotten already?"

The Prince, gaping at them, sat down on his bed, staring with his mouth hanging open. "You should close your mouth, Prince," Emerald told him acidly. "You look quite ugly with it hanging open like that."

Ruby turned towards Rella. "Rella, it's up to you to decide how this bastard has to pay for what he did; you're the one that's been hurt the most by him. What will it be?"

Taking a deep breath, she looked at the Prince, who was still gaping open-mouthed at all of them. Apparently he had never been so much as firmly reprimanded for raping anyone before; then again, his other victims were probably a lot more sane than Rella. Ticking the Prince off normally was _not_ a good idea.

"What I want," she said slowly, "is some way to make him go through everything I went through, to experience it all for himself--and then I want to make sure he'll never do it again."

"Like I said, just give me a knife," Emerald muttered under her breath.

Ruby was tilting her head to one side, regarding Rella thoughtfully. "Rella. You broadcasted your memories once before. Do you think you can do it again?"

"I--" Blinking, she stared at Ruby, realizing what she was planning. "But if I do that, you'll have to take down the shields on me! And then it'll affect me and Bardic too, and--and I might go into a coma again!"

"I'm pretty sure I can manage to put up shields that'll keep you from affecting anyone but the Prince, including yourself, and still let you broadcast your memories. It might be difficult, but I think I can do it. Are you willing to try?"

Rella took a deep breath, then nodded. Ruby nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating. Rella watched her construct the shield, interested; it seemed more like a thread connecting something inside her to the Prince than it did a shield, but she supposed that sort of made sense. After all, hopefully her power wouldn't leak outside the thread.

Ruby nodded, giving her permission to try. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and concentrated, concentrated on her all-too-vivid memories of the brutal rape the Prince had inflicted upon her. They came upon her far too quick; she gasped, stumbling backwards with the very intensity.

Bardic was behind her, and he put an arm around her shoulders, holding her, steadying her. It was all she needed; she managed to get the memories somewhat under control and concentrate on projecting them towards the Prince as well as she could.

She was rewarded as the Prince let out a cry, then proceeded to roll up into a ball on top of his bed, whimpering. Smiling, she let go of the memories, and Ruby quickly did something with the magic all around them. Then she stepped forward, placing one hand palm-down on the air in front of the Prince. "I, as a Faerie of the Light Court--"

Emerald stepped forward, doing the same. "And I, as another Faerie of the Light Court--"

Bardic, recognizing the familiar start of a geas, stepped forward as well. "And I, as human Bard--"

Ruby picked up where he left off. "--do bind this mortal man that never shall he touch a female in any way in which she does not wish, for all the rest of his life."

Emerald continued. "If he ever does, he shall find me behind him, waving a knife and threatening him with his life or his privates."

Rella tried not to laugh. Bardic finished the ritual: "And I, as Bard, stand witness to this geas."

Stepping back, the three all blinked and shook themselves. "Well, that's taken care of," Ruby said in a businesslike manner. "He'll go on reliving your rape until he's honestly, completely repented of what he did, and if he ever touches another unwilling woman again--well, you just heard what'll happen. I think we've taken care of that."

The campfire made some very interesting patterns if one stared at it long enough, Rella found. The way the flames were orange and red and yellow all mixed together, with some blue at the heart of the flame, and the way the heat made the air above the fire shimmer; it was really quite interesting if you just sat and looked at it for a while.

That was pretty much what she had been doing for the past several minutes, absently chewing on the dinner Ruby had caught for them.

"So what are you going to do now?" Bardic asked, interrupting her reverie.

Blinking, she looked up at him, then shrugged. "I don't know. That's what I've been trying to think about. I guess...I don't really know what I want to do with my life. I never really thought about it when I was at Rhianna's, and...I haven't had time to, lately."

"Hey, don't get too used to your new-found freedom," Emerald called from across the campsite, where she and Ruby had been having a seemingly urgent discussion. "After all, you need to get someone to train you in your magic, especially empathy, as soon as possible. We think we know someone who might train you, too, so you get to come back to the Faerie Lands with us."

Blinking, she put aside her plate, looking at the faeries. "Faerie Lands?"

Ruby, rising from her seat, nodded. "Indeed. It is the home of the faeries, and the one we think might train you resides there. She is an empath as well."

Remembering snippets of old tales she'd read, Rella raised an eyebrow at them. "Will I ever be able to get out again, once I go?"

"Of course you well," Emerald said, rising as well and dusting bread crumbs from her hands. "You're of faerie blood, so they'll welcome you, and they'll let you leave whenever you want."

"Bardic could even come, too, if he wants to," Ruby added. "Bards are as welcome in the Faerie Lands as they are anywhere else."

Bardic shrugged. "Why not? After all, a lot of Bards would kill for the chance to see the Faerie Lands. I'll come along, too."

"Great," Ruby said, taking Rella's plate and depositing it back into their packs. "We'll leave in the morning, then."


	17. The Happy Ending

Rella, reflecting absently as she gazed at the miraculous dancing fountains of the Faerie Lands, recalled that it had been six months since she had first come here. Six months in the time here, at least; Ruby had told her that time ran differently here, and she was likely to find that only a week or two had passed when she went back home.

It certainly didn't _seem_ like it had been six months. And yet Rella's empathic and magical training, which she had been assured was likely to take at least a year, was already over and done with; Diamond said she learned quicker than anyone she had ever known.

Rella smiled at that. When she had learned that Diamond, the Queen of the Faeries, was to be her teacher, she had been positively stunned, and protested on numerous occasions that the Queen of the Fae would never want to teach _her_, even if she was half-faerie. That was when Ruby had informed her that it was more than likely the faerie blood in her _came_ from Diamond herself, which had caused her to gape at the royal faerie, who didn't look much older than Rella herself.

Now, she had actually managed to become friends with Queen Diamond; once one got past the somewhat cold and aloof exterior, she was really quite a nice person.

The finishing of her lessons weren't the only thing that marked the passing of time, though. Cloud's belly was now quite plump as the result of her encounter with Starlight; Rella's guess had indeed been correct. Starlight himself had somehow ended up becoming Rella's horse; she couldn't help but see the irony in that, that the one thing the Prince had treated decently ended up becoming her's.

Honey, while at first frightened of the odd Faerie Lands, had taken to them quickly enough, and they had ended up leaving her in the competent hands of the some of the faeries who shared Rella's gift. They really had no need of the pony anymore, although Rella hated the idea of leaving her when finally she left the Faerie Lands; Honey was really a sweetie.

Now that her training was over and done with, she was again left with the dilemma of where to go next. The faeries had made it more than clear that she would be welcome to stay in the Faerie Lands if she wished, but could also feel free to leave if she wanted. Rella, although she liked it here, thought she liked life in the normal world better; the only question was, what was she going to do with herself from now on?

Leaves rustled behind her as someone moved along the pathway leading up to the fountains. Turning, she saw Bardic; smiling, she moved over, giving him an unspoken invitation to share her bench.

He took her invitation, smiling back at her. "So, happy that you've finally finished your training?" he asked, leaning back into the comfortable embrace of the bench. It was amazing how something that looked so much like an uncomfortable wooden bench made by human hands could prove to be so soft and comfortable.

"I...guess so," she said. "I just, once again, don't know what I'm going to do with myself." Sighing, she leaned her head on his shoulder; he put his arm around her shoulders, holding her close. "I've never really had a home, you know? I mean, with my father we were always travelling, and then of course Rhianna's wasn't a home. And...this isn't really, either."

"Ah," he said, gently stroking her hair. "You could--I mean, well--you see, I..."

Smiling, she tilted her head back to look at him. "What are you stuttering about now, Bardic?"

"Well, I--I mean--" He took a deep breath, and let it go. "I was sort of wondering if...well, if you would...I mean...will you marry me?" he finally blurted out, then blushed.

She blinked, and her mouth fell open. "I..." She closed her mouth, and swallowed. "Yes," she whispered, and kissed him.

She had been surprised to find that Bardic actually had a house, what with all the travelling he had to do; not only that, but he also reportedly owned three cats and a dog. When asked how they ate when he wasn't there, he had shrugged, saying he got a neighbor to feed them while he was gone.

Their wedding had been quite an elaborate affair; faeries apparently _loved_ to throw parties, and they weren't going to let so big an occasion as this get by without partying until the sun rose. Practically every faerie in the Faerie Lands attended, which surprised Rella, until Emerald had told her that half of them were just coming for the big party after the event.

Emerald and Ruby had been bridesmaids, followed by Rella, wearing a dress that the best of the faerie tailors had made for her. It was made of white silk and lace, and in her opinion, was even more beautiful than her dress she had worn to the ball.

Bardic, of course, had his outfit done by the same tailors. His was a much more elaborate tunic, pants, and overcoat, embroidered in silver and black. Rella thought he looked simply stunning.

Diamond herself had performed the ceremony, which hadn't been all that long. It seemed to Rella as if all it consisted of were "I do's", the exchanging of rings, and then she was kissing Bardic and it was over.

The party afterwards, however, lasted until well after dawn. She and Bardic had plead fatigue and retired shortly after midnight; when dawn came the next day, they left, heading for Bardic's home, which was situated, ironically enough, in Nordon.

When Rella got her first look at the house, she fell instantly in love. It was a small but cozy-looking cabin, surrounded by forest on three sides and looking like a woodcutter's cabin from a fairy tale. As Cloud and Starlight walked placidly into the small dirt lane leading up to the door, a large gray-and-white dog came bounding energetically up to the two of them, then stopped, looking at Rella and Starlight in confusion. Cocking his head to one side curiously, he barked at them, then looked at Bardic, as though asking him why in the world he had let these two into _his_ yard.

"It's alright, Wolf," Bardic comforted, dismounting from Cloud. The dog--Wolf--barked once and ran in a circle, chasing his tail. As soon as Bardic dismounted, Wolf ran to leap on him, placing his paws on Bardic's shoulders and licking him squarely in the face, tail wagging all the time.

"Thanks for the bath," Bardic told the dog solemnly, as Wolf ran over to the other side of the yard and sat, scratching fleas and watching Rella suspiciously. Rella tried not to laugh.

Dismounting, she knelt and offered a hand to the large dog. He came running over and barking at once, stopping just within arm's length to sniff curiously of her hand. Apparently deciding he liked how she smelled, he barked once and then proceeded to run up to her, lick her face, and run back off again.

Wiping off her face with the back of her hand, she suddenly found herself being lifted by a smiling Bardic. "I have to carry you across the threshold, after all," he said, grinning at her.

As the door was opened and she was carried inside by Bardic, laughing all the way, she felt that she was finally home.

Final A/n: Whee! We're finally done. Well, that was long, wasn't it? And do you see know why I said this one was different? I took a Cinderella retelling and a rape-and-revenge story and put em in a blender, and this is what came out. Anyways, all reviews and/or emails will be much appreciated. Farewell for now, folks!


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